Respecting human rights
Fortescue is committed to respecting and promoting the human rights of all people.
Human rights
Fortescue is committed to respecting and promoting the human rights of all people including our employees, the communities in which we operate, those within our supply chains and those who may be impacted by our activities.
Our Human Rights Policy outlines our business conduct, which strives to be consistent with the International Bill of Human Rights, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the principles concerning fundamental rights set
out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We are also a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact.
Our Code of Conduct and Integrity and Human Rights Policy are the foundation documents for human rights protection across Fortescue. Our Human Rights Policy is applicable to our directors, employees, contractors and suppliers.
We respect human rights through a range of mechanisms, including:
- Actively communicating our approach and expectations to all stakeholders, including suppliers.
- Seeking to secure the consent of First Nations peoples for mineral and energy exploration and development on their traditional lands.
- Improving our security performance by implementing the Voluntary Principles as an engaged member of the Voluntary Principles for Business and Human Rights.
- Engaging with stakeholders to understand the impacts of our activities and working with them to optimise benefits and limit negative impacts.
- Undertaking ongoing due diligence to identify, prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts of our activities, capturing outputs in our corporate risk register.
- Participating in engagement sessions related to human rights policy and regulatory development.
Human Rights Policy
Human rights management
To ensure continuous improvement we work to strengthen and refine our management of human rights. Key focus areas include:
- Considering human rights in our investments and acquisitions, including a human rights assessment being conducted for our acquisition of WAE.
- Conducting human rights due diligence for sourcing and purchasing activities and promoting our expectations via engagements and contract clauses.
- Developing a human rights screening tool to help teams identify possible human rights impacts related to business activities and determine mitigation strategies.
- Undertaking additional human rights due diligence via specialist third party sources and our GMC intelligence analysts.
- Using a third party Environment Social & Governance Monitor to analyse human rights risks at a country level.
- Implementing a Human Rights Impact Assessment tool that indicates when an HRIA should be conducted.
- Implementing a social performance toolkit, including guidance to avoid physical and economic displacement of project-affected people where possible. This process is consistent with the International Finance Corporation Performance Standard 5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.
- Chairing an internal cross-functional Human Rights Advisory Group to discuss human rights related matters, provide support and share knowledge.
- Implementing the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights throughout our business.
- Our Sustainability team includes human rights specialists that provide guidance and advice to the business on human rights related matters, including due diligence and the management of grievances.