Women's Rights Violations
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WOMEN’S RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN DUTCH PALM OIL SUPPLY CHAINS: THE CASE OF GUATEMALA The true cost of palm oil OCTOBER 2020 OCTOBER A dire need for mandatory human rights due diligence legislation 2020 About this report This report was compiled by ActionAid Netherlands and ActionAid Guatemala. It presents documented human rights violations through palm oil production in Guatemala and the links that exist between these violations and the Netherlands TABLE OF through the palm oil value chain and the Port of Rotterdam. This report is based on research conducted by Diana Quiroz, Barbara Kuepper and Eline Achterberg from Profundo, with CONTENTS contributions by Geisselle Sánchez Monge, Lourdes Gómez Willis, Danny Wijnhoud, Kelly Groen, Ward Warmerdam, and Jasmine Arnould. This report was reviewed by Laura Hurtado, Maria van der Heide, Rachel Noble and Rachel Walker. Worldwide, the palm oil industry has a track record of devastating impacts on women, their communities and the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 04 environment. Systematic human rights violations, persecution of human rights defenders, and the loss of forests and biodiversity are threatening the way of life and wellbeing of people displaced by and living around palm oil plantations. These violations impact entire families and communities. However, not enough attention has been paid to how 1. Palm oil is everywhere! 08 new dynamics, caused by the palm oil industry, have deepened gender inequalities and how the destruction of the natural environment and rights violations by the palm oil industry have hit women hardest. Women are experiencing deteriorating living conditions, increased workloads and destroyed livelihoods. On top of that, women also face 2. The true cost of palm oil 14 increased levels of gender-based and sexual violence while being at the forefront of defending their own and their communities’ rights.This report is a result of the collective work of ActionAid Netherlands and ActionAid Guatemala 3. Women’s rights abuses in Guatemalan based on research conducted by Profundo. The testimonies presented here were compiled from interviews with Guatemalan women and other members of indigenous communities affected by palm oil production destined for the palm oil production 30 Dutch market via the Port of Rotterdam. The interviews were conducted between 2018 and mid-2020. 4. The role of Netherlands-based Photographs: Rafael Gonzalez, Fabio Erdos & Jamy Osinga/ActionAid The women and families portrayed are all from communities affected by the Guatemalan palm oil industry. ActionAid companies 38 supports the communities in this area. The quotes in this report do not necessarily correspond with those portrayed. 5. A dire need for mandatory human Acronyms ESG – Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance rights due diligence legislation 62 FMCG – Fast Moving Consumer Goods FoEI – Friends of the Earth International GBV – Gender Based and Sexual Violence HRDD – Human Rights Due Diligence IACHR – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights NDPE IRF – No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation Implementation Reporting Framework OECD – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OHCHR – Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights P&C – Principles and Criteria RBC – Responsible Business Conduct RSPO – Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil RVO – Dutch Enterprise Agency UN – United Nations UNGC – United Nations Global Compact UNGP – United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights WHRD – Women Human Rights Defenders 2 | THE CASE OF GUATEMALA THE CASE OF GUATEMALA | 3 difficulty to source firewood or forest products, such within the Port of Rotterdam, namely AAK, Bunge and as medicinal herbs, following the clearing of forests in Cargill, as well as consumer brands, such as Unilever order to make room for the palm oil plantations. They and Nestlé. Under the UN Guiding Principles on are also often forced to pay or to walk longer distances Business and Human Rights (UNGP), all companies, in order to access clean water, as the plantations including the five aforementioned, have a duty to respect EXECUTIVE use significant proportions of clean water for palm oil human rights by conducting human rights due diligence production and pollute the water that returns as residue. (HRDD). HRDD is a process enacted to identify, mitigate, Women struggle to provide food for their families, as prevent and address adverse human rights impacts the plantations have grabbed the land women used for in their supply chains. Especially in this case, HRDD small scale food production and food prices have risen. should be conducted in a gender responsive way given the enormous adverse impacts on women’s rights SUMMARY 3. Palm oil production has increased women’s already associated with palm oil production. Governments heavy workload. Women are finding that making a living have a duty to protect human rights under the same and conducting care & domestic work has become a international guidelines and have a commitment to major challenge, and now costs much more time, in protect women’s rights and further gender equality, the newly restricted conditions since the arrival of the under international law. However, the Dutch government palm oil industry. The time women spend working at the has so far relied on voluntary measures, such as plantation is added to the increased time they spend certification schemes, in order to ensure respect for taking care of their families and doing domestic work, human rights by companies. The evidence offered due to the new challenge of accessing nutritious food by this research report suggests that voluntary and clean water. Even when women are not employed measures, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable at the plantations, they have seen their workload Palm Oil (RSPO), fall short and that the five companies increase, not only because they have to care for their researched have failed to adequately conduct HRDD. male relatives who work for the industry, but also as a Moreover, the evidence shows that these companies result of their increased unpaid care & domestic work. have not made sufficient efforts to identify and end Moreover, as their partner’s income is often not enough adverse impacts on women’s rights occurring in the Over the last three decades, palm oil has become the most widely used to provide for their families, women are forced to find production of palm oil in Guatemala of their supply vegetable oil worldwide. In the past five years, Guatemala became the sixth ways to earn additional money. chains. This is unacceptable. ActionAid is calling on Netherlands-based companies and policymakers to top producer of palm oil worldwide, producing 852,000 tonnes in 2019/20.1 4. Women do not only suffer as a result of the negative make sure palm oil supply chains are free of women’s The Netherlands is the largest importer of palm oil in the European Union and impacts associated with palm oil production, they also rights violations. Guatemala has become an important trading partner for the Netherlands. In have limited access to the few benefits that palm oil 2019 the EU imported 438,000 tonnes of palm oil from Guatemala,2 which production yields for those living around a palm oil We urge Dutch policymakers to: is over half of Guatemala’s total production. These imports were mainly plantation, such as employment. There is a significant • Adopt and implement mandatory human rights gender gap in labour force participation and decent due diligence legislation that is carefully designed to handled by Netherlands-based companies,i importing through the Port of work opportunities within the palm oil industry and lead to transformative change for women and avoid 3 Rotterdam a total of 43% of all palm oil produced in Guatemala. palm oil producers employ mostly men. In Guatemala, gender equality and women’s rights becoming a tick- women make up between 0.75 percent and 2 percent box exercise within the due diligence processes of However, the immense popularity of palm oil comes at a rights violations associated with palm oil production of the total workforce employed on palm oil plantations. companies.4 high environmental and social price. While multinational in Guatemala, and in particular the disproportionate Moreover, if hired at all, women are usually hired for jobs • Integrate a gender perspective in the drafting of and companies benefit from the low production costs of impacts of these violations on women: such as cooking and cleaning. Because these jobs are negotiations for the UN binding treaty on Business and palm oil, this has come at the expense of workers, considered “low skilled”, women get paid lower wages Human Rights, including mandatory gender impact peasants, indigenous communities, and women in 1. Women are exposed to high levels of institutional than other plantation workers conducting equally heavy assessments, gender-sensitive remedy mechanisms particular. Specifically, the production of palm oil results and sexual violence. ii Women human rights defenders tasks. and the protection of human rights defenders. in severe human rights abuses, including land grabs, (WHRDs) who denounce violations by the palm oil • Require Netherlands-based companies that make use unfair treatment of workers, violence and retaliation sector and defend their rights are criminalised through These women’s rights violations take place in and of government support to invest, operate or source against human rights defenders, and violations of prosecution, stigmatisation, and prejudice. These around palm oil plantations in Guatemala, but can be from Guatemala to conduct gendered due diligence. indigenous people and women’s rights. Moreover, palm women also suffer institutional violence through the linked to major multinational companies trading palm • Hold state-owned enterprises, such as the Port of oil plantations and palm oil mills can have devastating systematic infringement of their right to safety, wellbeing oil and related products around the world, through their Rotterdam, to a higher standard by requiring them impacts on natural resources. Through deforestation, and bodily autonomy and integrity.