Institute gives human rights perspectives on CSR assessment of Hydro Brazil
In November 2014, Hydro conducted a CSR assessment of their operations in Brazil. In line with the Hydro commitment to respect human rights, Hydro invited the Danish Institute for Human Rights to support in the process of providing a human rights perspective on the assessment.
The assessment found that overall Hydro’s CSR efforts have led to a number of positive improvements that have strengthened the company’s ability to respect human rights. This includes, amongst others, awareness amongst management and workers on the Hydro commitment to human rights as well as various projects aimed at engaging with and supporting the communities living near the Hydro operations.
“Hydro has taken over a set of complex challenges in Brazil and we are happy to see that they are embracing a human rights approach to address these challenges,” says Allan Lerberg Jørgensen, who is Director for Human Rights and Development at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
Still work to be done
However, the assessment also found that there still needs to be more specific thinking and initiatives around implementing Hydro’s human rights policy at the operations level.
“We agree with the main conclusions and work continuously to improve our standards,” says Head of Bauxite & Alumina, Executive Vice President Alberto Fabrini of Norsk Hydro.
Hydro has established a grievance mechanism to capture and address complaints and suggestions from the communities affected by its operations. The assessment found that Hydro can further strengthen the trust in these mechanisms among workers and local community members.
In addition, the assessment indicated that Hydro needs to ramp up efforts to oversee and raise labour standards in sub-contractors.
”We are clear that contractors shall have the same standards and working conditions as our own employees and we have taken measures to make that happen,” says Executive Vice President Alberto Fabrini.
The assessment also indicated that there are areas where Hydro Brazil could engage more strategically with the community to foster greater engagement and dialogue on real or perceived adverse impacts by the company as well as broader development needs.
“We recognize that relations to our neighbours are very important and have already kicked off several initiatives to improve local engagement in Barcarena and with the Quilombola communities along the bauxite pipeline,” says Alberto Fabrini.
“I am quite happy with the report,” says Hydro’s head of Corporate CSR, Executive Vice President Anne-Lene Midseim. “The main conclusion is that we are doing quite well with regard to human rights in Brazil. However, the Danish Institute has identified room for improvements in some areas. A number of the weaknesses have already been handled, others are in the process of being improved”.