Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.7: International Processes and Complaints Mechanisms
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There have been a number of problems with the
Guidelines as a complaints mechanism. The main one is that
they are voluntary in nature. For example, the complaint
that was brought to the UK NCP about Vedanta on behalf
of indigenous communities in Orissa, India (see case study in
Chapter 2.3) was effectively ignored by the company. To date
no specific action has been taken by the company with regard
to the NCP’s request that it now “change its behavior.” 55
There have been times where complaints have been more
effective. A complaint was submitted on behalf of the Mangyan
communities of the Philippine against Intex Resources, a
Norwegian mining company. The Norwegian NCP confirmed
breaches of the Guidelines, specifically around inadequate
consultations and failure to obtain legally required consent,
lack of transparency and failure to adequately assess projects
environmental risks. It was particularly important that although
the NCP recognized the primacy of national law in
regard to indigenous peoples in the Philippines, where there
was obvious poor implementation it insisted there were international
norms that the company should follow. Although the
company has argued against this, the environmental compliance
certificate (ECC) for large-scale mining, which had been
revoked has at the time of writing not been reinstated. 56
In May 2011, the OECD updated its Guidelines to raise
standards for corporations in the field of international human
rights, including those pertaining to indigenous peoples, specifically
referencing “United Nations instruments have elaborated
further on the rights of indigenous peoples.” 57 They are
also stronger on human rights, stressing companies should
“seek ways to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts
that are directly linked to their business operations,
products or services by a business relationship, even if they do
not contribute to those impacts.” 58