Business & Human Rights
Our vision: There is no business in abuse. Australian companies respect human rights wherever they operate and are held accountable if they fail to do so.
Bougainville communities and the Human Rights Law Centre file human rights complaint against Rio Tinto for impacts of mine waste pollution
Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to threaten the livelihoods of people in the name of profit. So together with communities in Panguna, the Human Rights Law Centre is pursuing justice. In September 2020, we launched a human rights complaint with the Australian Government on behalf of 156 Bougainville community members demanding that Rio Tinto take action to address its deadly legacy.
Report exposes the deadly human cost of Rio Tinto’s abandoned mine
Mining giant Rio Tinto is responsible for multiple human rights violations caused by pollution from its former mine in Bougainville. For 45 years, the Panguna copper and gold mine on the island of Bougainville was majority-owned by the British-Australian mining company, but in 2016 Rio Tinto divested from the mine, leaving behind more than a billion tonnes of mine waste.
Our major report, After the mine: Living with Rio Tinto’s deadly legacy, documents the deadly consequences of that decision for thousands of people living nearby. Based on site visits to 38 villages between September 2019 and February 2020, it reveals communities living with contaminated water sources, land and crops flooded by toxic mud and health problems ranging from skin diseases and respiratory problems to pregnancy complications.
Our report calls on Rio Tinto, and its former subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited, to immediately commit to funding an independent assessment of the mine to identify the most urgent health and safety risks to communities and establish a substantial fund to address these problems and assist with long-term rehabilitation.
Exposing Australian corporate human rights abuses overseas
Our Nowhere to Turn report, published in December 2018, highlighted serious human rights abuses by Australian companies operating overseas, with recommendations for reforms to improve accountability and access to justice in Australia.
The report examined ten examples of serious human rights abuses linked to Australian companies, ranging from the brutal 2014 murder of Reza Berati by G4S guards to BHP’s devastating Samarco dam collapse in Brazil and ANZ’s involvement in financing land grabs in Cambodia.
The report, which involved collaboration with civil society organisations and unions in a range of countries, has been a key tool in our subsequent advocacy to the Australian Government on these issues. In addition to reforms to the AusNCP, the report has contributed to a government review in 2019 to consider ways to strengthen Australia’s corporate criminal liability laws.
Keren Adams being shown the site of a mass grave near Kilwa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Community members allege that Australian company Anvil Mining supplied crucial logistical support to the DRC military who carried out the massacre.
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Securing new modern slavery laws
In recent years, a series of scandals have revealed forced labour in the supply chains of some of Australia’s biggest brands; Burmese migrants chained to Thai fishing boats supplying our seafood; Australian surfwear made in North Korean sweatshops; and even here in Australia, people working on farms and construction sites in slave-like conditions. The need for new laws to compel Australian businesses to address modern slavery in their supply chains is acute.
The Human Rights Law Centre has been at the forefront of pushing for the first modern slavery laws in Australia. We have advocated in the media, before parliamentary committees and in meetings with politicians from all political parties.
In January 2019, our work paid off with modern slavery laws passing the Australian Parliament. Since then, we have been pushing for the introduction of similar laws in New South Wales.
The new laws will shine a muchneeded spotlight on modern slavery by requiring large Australian companies for the first time to open up their books and report publicly on what they are doing to stop slavery in their supply chains.
But transparency is only the first step towards accountability. The new laws have some critical weaknesses. Companies that fail to report or provide false information will face no financial penalties and there is currently no independent oversight to ensure that companies comply. The Human Rights Law Centre will continue to push for stronger laws to eradicate slavery and properly protect the rights of workers who make the products we use every day.
Reshaping Australia’s principal corporate complaints body
Australia’s primary corporate complaints body is the Australian OECD National Contact Point (AusNCP), based within the Department of Treasury. The AusNCP has the power to mediate disputes, make findings against companies and recommend reforms. Past complaints to the body have related to illegal land grabs financed by Australian banks, labour abuses in Australian-run factories and assaults and sexual abuse by Australian private contractors on Manus Island and Nauru.
Until recently, the AusNCP was under-staffed, under-resourced and had never made a finding against an Australian company. That’s why the Human Rights Law Centre led a two year advocacy campaign to overhaul the body and give it the powers and independence to properly investigate allegations of abuse.
In 2019, our work paid off with the announcement of major reforms to the body. The reforms included the appointment of a new independent examiner, Mr John Southalan, to investigate corporate human rights complaints, and a new Advisory Board to oversee complaints. Our Legal Director, Keren Adams, was appointed to the Advisory Board in March 2019, and since then has been working to further improve the body.
The overhaul of the AusNCP has already contributed to its first ever finding in 2019 against an Australian company for breaches of the OECD Guidelines, with recommendations for redress to a woman sexually assaulted in one of Australia’s offshore detention centres.