CHAPTER 14 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES ON SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS REACH ADOLESCENCE

• Jurisdiction: United States

Human Rights Law and the Extractive Industries
(Feb 2016)
CHAPTER 14
THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES ON SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS REACH ADOLESCENCE
AAnita Ramasastry
UW Law Foundation Professor of Law
Director, Graduate Program in Sustainable International Development
University of Washington School of Law
Seattle, WA

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ANITA RAMASASTRY is Director of the Graduate Program in Sustainable International Development at the University of Washington Law School. She is an expert in the fields of business and human rights, anti-corruption, and commercial law and development. Her current research focuses on the accountability of economic actors in conflict and weak-governance zones. From 2009 to 2012, Ramasastry served as a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Market Access and Compliance in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, working under the leadership of then Secretary Gary Locke. She directed the ITA's anti-corruption and trade efforts, and helped to launch new initiatives with the G20, APEC, and the OSCE. She also coordinated the ITA's trade strategies with new emerging markets, such as Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia, and developed a new business and human rights curriculum for U.S. trade officers in embassies worldwide.

Draft Presentation Paper

Overview

The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights ("VPs") was a vanguard effort to address controversies focused on the alleged complicity of oil companies in human rights abuses committed by host country governments. The "VPs", as they are often called, was one of the earliest examples of a multistakeholder initiative, that brought together governments, civil society and extractive companies to work together at both creating a set of principles meant to address corporate aspect for human rights, as well as an oversight mechanisms for corporate compliance with the relevant principles. The VPs are an example of soft law and an attempt to provide transnational coordination and regulation outside of the regulatory sphere.

The VPs are now in their 16th year, and are still an important part of the business and human rights landscape for energy and mining companies - although the landscape has changed, with the advent of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as the launch of related but separate effort aimed at ensuring that private military and security contractors respect human rights and humanitarian law.

This short presentation provides an overview of the VPs - where they came from, the current state of play, some recent critiques and potential future directions for the initiative, which continues to remain a relevant mechanisms for addressing how energy and extractive companies manage human rights risk in complex environments.

I. Context

In the 1990s, the extractive industry has expanded transnational activities and their operations in weak governance or conflict zones, often referred to as complex environments.

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These areas, which may involve ongoing-armed conflict, or other disputes over the allocation of natural resources and property rights, create security and human rights problems for companies. Mining and extractive operations may increase the need for state or private security forces. Security forces may be present for multiple reasons - from protecting a company's property or to extracting rents and private benefit from mines and from the local population for themselves in territory over which they have control. Artisanal mining can also create conflict, as small scale miners may clash with larger operators with respects land rights and rights to extract.

In the 1990s, several oil companies were sued or publicly called out for their perceived complicity with repressive host governments. Shell, for example was accused of supporting the Nigerian government's execution of Ken Sari Wiwa, a leading environmental activist in the Niger Delta. BP was accused of using a rogue paramilitary group to protect its pipeline operations in Colombia. These cases illustrated the challenges of companies conducting their private security operations in a way that...