Protecting our staff and facilities can be complicated in countries where corruption or the use of severe security methods prevents the use of the police or army. We apply strict standards to our security procedures.
We have been an active supporter of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights since governments, NGOs and companies developed them in 2000. They guide companies on risk assessment and in dealing with public and private security. We continue to work to incorporate these principles into all our security contracts.
We first included the Voluntary Principles in our Group Security Standards in 2007. The standard annual risk assessments of all our operations do include background checks on security staff for human rights abuse, and checks that security staff are trained to apply the Voluntary Principles.
We refer to the Voluntary Principles in our contracts with private security companies and when working with government security forces.
We only allow armed security when required by law or when considered that there is no other way to manage security risks. All armed guards must meet our standards, based on UN guidelines and conventions on the use of force and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
Armed guards must first try to resolve a security incident without using force. If this fails then they should only use the minimum force needed and offer help to anyone – including offenders – injured as a result.
