Human rights

For that reason, we train our staff to be aware of our policies regarding the rights of our people and the communities in and around which we work.

We support a number of international commitments and are committed to ensuring that we comply with them. We helped to develop the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, and we were also one of the early supporters of the United Nations Global Compact.

How we respect human rights

Our employees are required to comply with our commitments as set out in The way we work. In addition, each year all our businesses complete a comprehensive Internal Controls Questionnaire (ICQ) to demonstrate their compliance in this area.

We also have a confidential and independent means of reporting issues and communicating ideas called Speak-OUT. This free helpline and counselling service was established to ensure that issues, which could give cause for concern, could be addressed in a confidential and timely manner.

Our policy on Human Rights is a vital part of our commitment to maintaining positive relationships with our communities and others.  It determines how we are expected to respect human rights and how we would respond if there was a breach of those rights.

The guidance also addresses issues such as indigenous peoples' rights, the use of security personnel and employees' rights. In recent years, our human rights policies and procedures have been strengthened through the use of online training modules. Training is compulsory for all employees at general manager level and above. To date over 2,500 employees have completed the online training module.

Our results

There were no reported incidents of breaches of our human rights policy during 2006.