BG Group is a signatory to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR), and our commitment to respect human rights is laid out in our Human Rights Policy.
Twice a year, we conduct due diligence across our functions (such as Human Resources, Contracts and Procurement, Security, Environment, Social Performance and our in-house Legal team) to ensure that we comply with the Policy and identify any risks of breach. This work continued in 2011 and no instances of alleged or actual human rights breaches raised through a formal complaint or legal or regulatory process were reported by BG Group businesses. However, functional representatives agreed to enhance the due diligence process in 2012 by standardising internal reporting procedures, clarifying what constitutes a human rights ‘risk’ or ‘incident’, and ensuring that functional Policies and Standards specifically refer to relevant human rights risks.
We also revised our approach to be consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011. We invited Professor John Ruggie, former Special Representative to the UN Secretary General for Business and Human Rights, to address senior BG Group leaders on the UN Guiding Principles.
We played an active role in IPIECA’s Human Rights Task Force. IPIECA is developing an industry approach to human rights due diligence, aiming in particular to ensure that grievance mechanisms are effective and minimise the risk of human rights incidents.
We updated our VPSHR risk assessments in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, to reflect the changed socio-political and security context in those locations. We conducted new VPSHR assessments in Tanzania, where armed security forces are required to secure offshore activities in coastal East Africa, particularly against the risk of pirate attacks.
We are planning to provide training to security providers in the course of 2012, even though we consider the risk of human rights violations to be low. This is consistent with our commitments to the VPSHR.
http://www.bg-group.com/sustainability11/Society/Pages/HumanRights.aspx