On December 1, 2014, Sherritt, Ambatovy’s operator, was admitted to the corporate pillar of the Voluntary Principles Initiative, thus joining many of the world’s leading oil, gas, and mining companies that promote the respect for human rights in the safeguard of their operations.
The duty to protect human rights rests with governments. However, all of society’s actors, including businesses like Ambatovy, have a responsibility to respect human rights.
The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) are a set of principles designed to guide companies in the extractive industry in maintaining the safety and security of their operations within a framework that encourages respect for human rights.
Ambatovy has promoted the respect for human rights with several initiatives in the past three years, including security and human rights risk assessments and program reviews, and has held and facilitated trainings and workshops in conjunction with multiple national and international stakeholders: National ministries, diplomatic missions; industry counterparts; the International Committee of the Red Cross; regional authorities; public security forces at the high command and operational level, in particular the National Gendarmerie, with which Ambatovy has signed a Security Convention that promotes the Voluntary Principles; and private security service providers with VPs related to key performance indicators embedded in all contractual agreements.
The benefits of these initiatives include risk reduction and reputational enhancement through improved collaboration and problem solving with civil society and the Government and a positive impact on local governance in Ambatovy’s areas of operation.
Sherritt’s admission into the Association strongly reflects the work conducted in Ambatovy and will allow for wider sharing of best practices and lessons learned with multiple extractive industry counterparts, governments and NGOs. Going forward, Ambatovy looks forward to maintaining current commitments, implementing further initiatives and sharing its systems and policies with Sherritt in order to promote an enterprise-wide approach to VPs implementation.
An emphasis on human rights is only one of the foundations that will contribute to Ambatovy achieving its Vision of building a committed and engaged workforce that will assist the company in delivering world-class results in Safety, Environmental Stewardship, Social Performance, Product Quality, Production, and Cost Efficiency.
