AMBASSADOR'S LUNCHEON REMARKS: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY IN LATIN AMERICA

April 3, 2008 Sheraton Hotel, Atalaya Room

I would like to thank the organizers of this Human Rights and the Oil & Gas Industry in Latin America conference for organizing this valuable gathering. 

I particularly wanted to recognize conference sponsor Exxon-Mobil, both for its efforts here today and for its broader Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in Argentina. 
It is no surprise that Exxon received the American Chamber of Commerce's 2006 "Premio Ciudadanía Empresaria" award in the area of environment and health for their corporate blood drive. 

Thanks to Tom Hess and his Esso Argentina colleagues for highlighting the commitment of the almost 500 U.S. companies working in Argentina – who employ over 150,000 Argentine citizens -- to play a positive and productive role in Argentina’s economic and social development.

Today, I’d like to speak about the origins of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights from the perspective of one of the founding government members of those Voluntary Principles. 

In my former role as State Department Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, I helped formulate and launch the original agreement 8 years ago.

Initiated and chaired by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, the Voluntary Principles were the result of months of discussion and negotiation between our two governments, human rights NGOs, and large oil, gas, and mining companies. 

This was one of the first government-led multi-stakeholder initiative that included both companies and NGOs at the table. 

Recognizing that security and respect for human rights can and should be consistent, this diverse group worked to create what is today known as the Voluntary Principles and formally announced the initiative on December 20, 2000. 

At the time, the Voluntary Principles were one of the first multi-stakeholder initiatives of its kind, and at the heart of its creation were the challenging dual priorities that security and human rights presented. 

On the one hand, companies needed to meet their legitimate security needs.  At the same time, local communities and international NGOs insisted rightly that the human rights of those living near the installations also be respected. 

Unlike other sectors like apparel or light manufacturing, which can pick up and relocate their operations if needed, the extractives industry centers on natural resources which can not be moved.  

Mines and oil rigs are set up where the mineral or oil is located, and many of these resources are located in challenging political and economic environments such as the Niger Delta or Indonesia’s Aceh Province.

Allegations against some extractive companies of complicity – wittingly or unwittingly – in human rights abuses gained the attention of the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Our governments were concerned not only with the protection and promotion of human rights, but also the risk to the operations and reputation of our national companies, as well as the importance of ensuring that those companies are able and willing to continue to operate in key countries such as Nigeria, Indonesia and Colombia. 

In March 2000, the U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. Department of State brought a number of leading energy companies, human rights NGOs, and corporate responsibility NGOs together to determine whether there was a willingness to seek common ground on security and human rights issues. 
Over the course of that year, a consensus was reached that the process would aim at developing specific guidelines for companies on ways to handle their security arrangements consistent with international human rights standards. 

The resulting principles address three key substantive areas: (1) the criteria that companies take into account as they assess both the risk to their operations and to human rights before initiating operations; (2) their relationships with state security forces, both police and military -- the area of primary substantive concern to the participants; and (3) their relations with private security forces.
 
The Voluntary Principles have grown to include today the governments of The Netherlands and Norway, 18 international oil, gas, and mining companies, 7 international NGOs, and 3 international observers.