Preface by the Editors ✁ ✂ ✄ ♦ Tampakan Copper-Gold Project Brigitte Hamm · Anne Schax · Christian Scheper Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), commissioned by MISEREOR (German Catholic Bishops’ Organization for Development Cooperation) and Fastenopfer (Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund), in collaboration with Bread for All Imprint ■☎✆✝✞✝ ✟✠✡☛ ☞✌ 978-3-939218-42-5 Published by: Bischöfl iches Hilfswerk MISEREOR e.V. Mozartstraße 9 · 52064 Aachen · Germany Phone: +49 (0)241 442 0 www.misereor.org Contact: Armin Paasch ([email protected]) und Elisabeth Strohscheidt ([email protected]) and Katholisches Hilfswerk FASTENOPFER Alpenquai 4 · 6002 Luzern · Switzerland Phone +41 (0)41 227 59 59 www.fastenopfer.ch Contact: Daniel Hostettler ([email protected]) Authors: Brigitte Hamm, Anne Schax, Christian Scheper (Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen) Photos: Elmar Noé, Armin Paasch, Elisabeth Strohscheidt, Bobby Timonera Cover photo: Paasch/MISEREOR Photos included in this study show the everyday life and present natural environment of people likely to be affected by the proposed Tampakan mine. Graphic Design: VISUELL Büro für visuelle Kommunikation, Aachen Published: July 2013 (updated version) Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project Brigitte Hamm · Anne Schax · Christian Scheper ✍ Study Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project Preface by the Editors ✥ ✏ ✏✑✒ ✏✓ ✔✒ ✕ ✖ ✗✘ ✓ ✏✓ ✙ ✚ ✏✑✓ ✛ ✒ ✜✓ ✏ ✕✘✓ ✢ ✣ ✤ ✢ ✛ ✢ ✜ May 2013. Partners have raised severe human rights concerns related “accident” has gained world-wide public attention: the col- to the Tampakan Copper-Gold Mine proposed by Sagitta- lapse of another garment factory in Bangladesh. Hundreds rius Mines Inc. (SMI) and its shareholders Xstrata Copper, of workers lost their lives, and many more were serious- Indophil Resources NL and Tampakan Group of Companies. ly injured. Some might not be able to work again in the Located in Southern Mindanao, occupying four ancestral industry. How are they going to earn a living? We have re- domains of indigenous B’laan communities, it would be peatedly heard about factories collapsing or burning down the biggest open-pit mine in the Philippines and one of the in Bangladesh and Pakistan over the last couple of years. biggest world-wide if realised. Approximately 5,000 peo- In most of these cases, profi t has reigned over the human ple would have to be relocated to make room for the mine. rights of the workers. And government authorities in the Whereas some of them hope for better housing and living home countries of the factories have turned a blind eye conditions, many others fear for their future and that of fu- on such business-related human rights abuses. They have ture generations, as the present basis of their livelihoods been unable, or unwilling, to meet their duty of protecting and culture would be destroyed. Moreover, being located people’s human rights. in a very sensitive natural environment, the planned open- Business-related human rights abuses are by no means pit mine would require the destruction of large pristine limited to the garment and textile industries. They are found forests and pose an additional serious risk to water supply in many other sectors, too. The extractive industries are at and quality for consumers and farmers in the entire region the top of the list. According to a study by former UN Spe- around the planned site. Among others, the human rights cial Representative on Business and Human Rights John to self-determination of indigenous peoples, to food, water, Ruggie, it is within this sector that most human rights com- health, life and physical integrity are at stake. The potential plaints against business companies are registered. In the victims are indigenous people who have already been ne- experience of MISEREOR, the German Catholic Bishops’ Or- glected and marginalized before by the local and national ganization for Development Cooperation, the Swiss Catholic government units, for example with respect to the right to Lenten Fund (Fastenopfer) as well as the Swiss protestant education and health. development organization Bread for All, mining is one of the As yet, the mine is in the exploration stage. But already, main - if not THE main - hotspot in the fi eld of business and it appears to be dividing communities and people. Confl ict human rights. For a long time, all three organizations have is escalating, even within families. Military and paramili- been supporting partners in many countries in Africa, Asia tary groups are being sent to the region to protect foreign and Oceania and in Latin America in their struggles against investment. The confl ict is becoming more violent and has business-related human rights abuses. It is the common, already cost lives – on both sides. The sad human rights daily and sad experience of these partners that the human record of the Philippines also shows that human rights rights of indigenous and other local communities as well defenders are easily criminalized, threatened or even ex- as the rights of workers are very often severely violated in trajudicially executed, in particular when they are engaged the context of large-scale mining projects. Transnational in a struggle for land rights and against large-scale invest- companies are rarely held accountable for such abuses, ments or powerful landlords. due to weak or bad governance in the host countries of What can be done? Countries all over the world need their activities and due to major regulatory gaps in their investment and business activities to develop. Business home countries with respect to the extraterritorial activi- is doing a lot of good, but it must be guaranteed that eco- ties of these companies. nomic development primarily benefi ts the population, not ✎ ✎ Preface by the Editors ❥ ✬ ✯t ✰ ✲★✳ ✫✪ ✭ ✴✰✮ ✵★ ✯✶ ✰ ✯✭✰ ✷ ✷ ★ ✷✵t★ ✳✵ t ✧✵✮ t ✧★ ✫ ✪✬✮t ✸ ✹ ✰ ✮ ✩ ✩✪✫ ✬✭★ ✮t ✯ ✰✮ ✩ ✱ t ✧★ oices of stakeholders likely to be in- consumers from industrialized countries. The UN Guiding volved in or affected by the project. Against this background Principles on Business and Human Rights unanimously the analyses and conclusions expressed in the study do not endorsed in the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 can be necessarily represent the views of the editing organizations one helpful tool on the way to achieving this goal. Govern- and their Philippine partners. ments, companies, including Xstrata, and NGOs, including Under the precautionary principle and starting from a partner organizations from the Philippines, participated in do no harm approach, it is the conviction of the editors the discussions leading to their endorsement. The Guiding that this project should not proceed until and unless all Principles confi rm the duty of states to protect people from human rights concerns raised in this study are fully and human rights abuses, including by private actors. They also suffi ciently addressed. Exit options for the project should underline the responsibility of private companies them- be developed by the company and in particular by local, selves to respect human rights in all activities along their regional and national government authorities of the Phil- supply chain. They advise governments and companies ippines in case the human rights concerns cannot be fully what they can do and what remedies need to be in place and comprehensively addressed and solved. for victims. One tool they recommend is a comprehensive As editors, we would like to congratulate and thank the Human Rights Impact Assessment. However, neither the authors of INEF for the high quality of their work. We sin- Philippine government nor the companies involved have cerely hope that this HRIA will help the poor in Mindanao so far undertaken such an assessment. to have their human rights respected, protected and ful- This is why the editors of this study responded posi- fi lled. We also hope that the HRIA will increase awareness tively to the invitation of our partner organisations in the among political decision-makers, the business community Philippines to commission a HRIA to an independent re- and the wider public about the complex human rights prob- search institute that is well reputed and experienced in the lems and challenges in the Tampakan mining area and in fi eld of business and human rights. While we provided the mining contexts in general. Finally, we hope that this HRIA, fi nancial resources to this project, facilitated contacts to so thoroughly carried out by INEF, will encourage many gov- our partners and joined a fact-fi nding mission to the Phil- ernments, companies and NGOs to commission and use an ippines, the study itself was conducted and written by the independent HRIA as a regular tool in their own efforts to Institute for Peace and Development (INEF) in full auton- promote human rights and prevent human rights abuses omy and independence. It was our clear and explicit wish in business activities. Large-scale projects must not have that not only the negative but also the possible positive the effect of turning poverty into misery for those affect- impacts be considered. The objective was a balanced, nu- ed. A HRIA can be an effective instrument to prevent this anced and scientifi cally solid HRIA that takes into account from happening. Pirmin Spiegel Antonio Hautle Dr. Beat Dietschy Executive Director Director General Secretary MISEREOR Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund Bread for All ✦ ✦ ✦ Study Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project Preface by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines ✾✼✿❀✿❁❁✿ ❂ ✽❃ ✽❄ ❁ ✽❅✿ ✽ ❂❆ ✽❇ ❈ ❉ ❅ ❚✼ ✽ -reaching political, social are also very pleased to announce that we will assume the and economic transformations during the last decades, chairmanship of the ICC Working Group on Business and which have overall enabled improvements in the reali- Human Rights from August 2013 until 2015. zation of human rights. Nevertheless, the country also The Guiding Principles also point to the importance of continues to face challenges it needs to master in order assessing (possible) human rights impacts, particular- to meet its duties under international law.