Transparency & political involvement

We are committed to the utmost transparency, consistent with good governance and commercial confidentiality.  So we constantly strive to conduct our business with integrity, honesty and fairness, building from a foundation of compliance with relevant local laws, regulations and international standards.

How we maintain transparency and political involvement

We adhere to the political involvement policy contained in our statement of business practice The way we work. We do not directly or indirectly participate in party politics nor make payments to political parties or individual politicians.

Mining is a heavily regulated industry and we maintain a continuous dialogue with many governments and public authorities at national, provincial and municipal levels, We regularly speak out on matters that affect our business interests, as well as those of our shareholders, employees and others involved in our activities.

Nothing in our policy seeks to restrict individuals acting in their personal capacity as citizens from participating in the political process.

We belong to a wide range of industry associations and representative bodies and work closely with international and non governmental organisations. We also develop dialogues with trade associations to develop appropriate standards and guidelines for our industry.

In addition, we carry out stakeholder research around the world. And as an active member of many international representative bodies, further our business interests and help raise industry standards.

Some examples of our political engagement and memberships include: 

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)

We are a co-founder of this body, which aims to be the global voice of the world's mining and metals industries.  ICMM members believe that the mining, minerals and metals industry acting collectively can best ensure continued access to land, capital and markets. The aim is also to build trust and respect, and to demonstrate its ability to contribute successfully to sustainable development.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

The WBCSD is a coalition of 170 international companies united by a shared commitment to sustainable development through economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. We have been involved in a number of WBCSD projects, including the corporate reporting of sustainable development.

United Nations Global Compact

The Global Compact is an accord between the United Nations and business for cooperation in upholding and promoting a set of ten principles covering areas such as human rights, labour standards and environmental protection. We were an early supporter of the Global Compact and are actively involved with the Global Compact UK Network, and helped to launch a mandatory peer review system for UK Network members in 2006.

Transparency International

We continue to support Transparency International, a global civil society organisation leading the fight against bribery and corruption. Rio Tinto was one of the original corporate members of the joint business and civil society steering committee which, under the chairmanship of Transparency International, drafted the Business Principles for Countering Bribery.

We remain actively engaged in its work and are making an additional financial contribution over three years to help produce a tool kit which companies can use to introduce and implement effective anti-corruption programmes.

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)

We have been involved with the EITI since its launch in 2002.  The initiative is designed to promote transparent revenue reporting by mining companies and government, with the participation of civil society.

Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights

We continue to support the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, which were issued by the US and UK governments in 2000. We were involved in the first steps to develop the principles with the aid of non governmental organisations.

More information can be found in Our key relationships and Government relations.

Our results

There were no reported incidents of breaches of our political involvement policies during 2007 or 2006.