Click here for FFP’s Annual Report to the Voluntary Principles Plenary 2013
The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights is a multistakeholder initiative that promotes a common understanding, framework and platform for improving security in and around extractive industry operations and, in so doing, improving human security and the human rights of affected communities.
At its core is a set of principles related to undertaking appropriate risk assessments, hiring and overseeing private security companies, and relations with host government public security forces. While implementation of the VPs is very site specific, a number of toolkits and trainings have been developed for companies to utilize to bring their internal policies and procedures in-line with the VPs.
The initiative provides a useful framework for dialogue on sensitive issues such as host-country public security forces. It also is a forum to share and learn from best practices and others’ experiences and undertake collective and collaborative outreach to encourage and expand national-level and project-level implementation of the VPs.
The VPs was established in 2000 jointly by the U.S. and British governments and today counts among its membership several governments, over 20 of the world’s leading oil and mining companies and a dozen international NGOs. The Fund for Peace was a founding NGO participant of the VPs, after the initiative was originally conceived within FFP’s Human Rights & Business Roundtable in the late 1990s.
FFP continues to serve as a Board Member of the Voluntary Principles Association and a Steering Committee Member of the Voluntary Principles Initiative. FFP also partners with governments, companies and other NGOs on realizing the goals of the VPs through practical implementation at mining and oil sites and within capitals around the world.
The official web site of the VPs may be accessed at www.voluntaryprinciples.org.