Human Rights

Our commitment to upholding human rights across our value chains

To continually improve in this important area, we are embedding human rights as a foundation of the approaches and standards that we apply throughout our business.

Our Group Human Rights Policy is aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and our commitment to the UN Global Compact Principles. Our Human Rights Framework underpins the policy, describes how it links to our standards, such as the Social Way, and outlines our salient human rights risks.

We are also a signatory of the UN Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the Business Network on Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders.

Our Responsible Sourcing Standard for Suppliers

We have embedded our approach to human rights and our expectations for suppliers in our Responsible Sourcing Standard for Suppliers.

To help ensure that our supply chain remains ethical and free of modern slavery, we require every supplier that we onboard to comply with specific standards related to the industries or sectors in which they do business.

The contractor social management section of the Social Way provides methods and approaches for our operations to manage the potential social and human rights impacts from our contractors. This includes defining whether a contractor’s activities will be ‘socially material’ and detailing how potential impacts, risks and opportunities associated with these activities need to be managed.

Our Modern Slavery Statements

We aim to be part of an ethical value chain that respects human rights and is free from slavery. To date, we have produced six Modern Slavery Statements published in compliance with the UK Modern Slavery Act, and three Modern Slavery Statements in compliance with the Australian Modern Slavery Act.

Read the statement here

Indigenous Peoples

With great respect for the close connection of Indigenous Peoples to the land, we remain committed to obtaining and maintaining Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for all relevant projects, in line with the 2013 ICMM Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples and Mining and IFC Performance Standard 7.

We have incorporated this commitment into the Social Way. In Canada, where our operations affect Indigenous Peoples, we work with the relevant authorities to reach Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs).

At our Steelmaking Coal operations in Australia, we have established cultural heritage management agreements with the traditional owners of the lands in which we operate. Developed through engagement with traditional owners, our revised Reconciliation Action Plan is a framework for Anglo American to support the national reconciliation movement and to contribute to achieving reconciliation internally and in the communities in which Anglo American operates.

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Adopting a rights-based approach to working with
communities

Aligned with our Human Rights Policy and the UNGPs, respect for human rights is
incorporated throughout the Social Way. For example, it underpins:

Stakeholder engagement

Our approach to engagement with stakeholders, which is based on the principle of inclusion and diversity and must be open, meaningful, respectful and include vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

Our methodology

The methodology for identifying vulnerable groups and ensuring specific consideration for these groups within our approaches.

Addressing key impacts

Processes for identifying, assessing and addressing social and human rights impacts: the potential social consequences (meaning impacts to external stakeholders) of our activities are assessed and rated using the Anglo American Social Consequence matrix and the process to identify, assess, manage, monitor and evaluate these impacts requires the consultation and participation of stakeholders.

Social consequence matrix

The social consequence matrix, which is used to rate incidents according to the scale of impact the vulnerability of those impacted and how easy it is to restore those impacted to their prior situation or state. The social consequence matrix can be found on the Social Way 3.0 website under section 3C.4.

Mitigation hiearchy

The integration of the mitigation hierarchy into the approaches to human rights impact management, and the monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness of controls.

Site-level grievance mechanisms

Site-level grievance mechanisms, which must be based on engagement and dialogue, and enable remediation. All grievances and incidents are investigated using the learning from incidents methodology, which requires sharing of lessons learned. Stakeholders are engaged throughout the grievance investigation and remediation process.

Our policies and supporting documents

Our comprehensive set of policies, standards and principles ensure that we uphold the commitments we make to our stakeholders and work towards a common set of ambitions.

Title

Format

Human Rights Policy – English

PDF

Human Rights Policy – Portuguese

PDF

Human Rights Policy – Spanish

PDF

Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (2021 Annual Report) - English

PDF

Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (2020 Annual Report) - English

PDF