The Shell General Business Principles are designed to ensure that our staff and contractors respect the human rights of each other and the communities where we work. We also incorporate human rights in our Code of Conduct, where we acknowledge that conducting our business in a manner that respects human rights – as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core conventions of the International Labor Organisation – supports our licence to operate.
We focus on due diligence and access to remedy, concepts from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights developed by Professor John Ruggie, the former UN special representative on business and human rights. We worked with Professor Ruggie as he developed these principles and we support the final outcome.
We have been reviewing our existing processes and practices, with consideration for these principles, helping provide our neighbours with a more effective way to lodge concerns about our operations.
Before we invest in any project, we require integrated environmental, social and health impact assessments to be carried out. We develop plans to engage with interested parties and we find practical ways to support human rights directly related to our business activities.
We launched new community grievance pilot projects in 2011, based on the UN principles. The outcome will help us improve the way we put grievance mechanisms in place.
This work builds on experiences of working with Professor Ruggie in piloting community grievance mechanisms at the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas plant in Russia.
As part of our work to support fundamental human rights in line with the legitimate role of business we have made changes to our internal structure to be as proactive as possible. We have, for example, created a team across our businesses and functions that focuses on human rights issues. We have also created new roles, such as indigenous peoples’ specialists.
We respect the rights of those working for us in line with the International Labour Organisation Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work - opens in new window.
These include:
• freedom of association – employees can join a union wherever permitted by national law;
• freedom from discrimination in the workplace, through equal opportunities.
• freedom from forced labour; and
• the abolition of child labour.
We aim to create a workplace that encourages people to make best use of their talents and provides them with flexible working conditions to meet their individual needs.
Examples of efforts to respect human rights includes in Nigeria, where Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) actively supports and promotes the Voluntary Principles of Security and Human Rights - opens in new window. It also has a comprehensive training programme on human rights and conflict-resolution for company security officials.
Building new facilities or setting up new operations may require moving people from one area to another or disrupting livelihoods, a process known as physical or economic resettlement. Governments usually carry out this process.
We work to reduce any potential impacts of our operation on communities. In areas where our activities may cause resettlement or other disruptions, we require our operations to implement plans for managing and limiting these impacts, in accordance with regulations and international guidelines.
