2014 Annual and CSR Report Switch to Spanish Language
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Human Rights and Security

Upholding human rights is fundamental to sustainable development, and it is essential to the success of our business. Our Human Rights Policy articulates our commitment to human rights, setting internationally accepted standards for business and labour practices, community participation and security measures. 

Hudbay is committed to providing a secure environment for our employees and contractors, and to maintaining security practices that are mindful of the security and safety of our neighbouring community members. As core guidance on achieving these commitments, within our Human Rights Policy, Hudbay commits to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (Voluntary Principles). A fundamental premise within this framework is that security of our personnel and property begins with our relationships with neighbouring communities and the professional conduct of employees and security personnel.

Our business units regularly train security personnel (company employees, contractors and public security who are on-site at our request) on aspects such as the United Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. Company security supervisors and the majority of contracted security staff are unarmed except for government-mandated armed security guards at the two explosive storage areas in Peru.

In Peru, we regularly audit security policies and practices, and conduct gap analyses against the Voluntary Principles. Security personnel have five-minute huddles on policy and practice before each shift, and are given weekly refreshers on topics such as our Code of Conduct and general safety. They also attend monthly training programs on a list of 20 priority topics including the Voluntary Principles and the use of force. Security personnel work closely with Constancia’s community relations team to maintain open lines of communication with local communities and mitigate potential issues.

Hudbay is named in three civil lawsuits relating to events prior to 2010 in Guatemala, where the Company once owned a controlling interest in Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN) and its Fenix ferro-nickel project. Based on investigations, eyewitness reports and other information, we are confident that the allegations are untrue and the cases will fail on their merits at trial. As such, we feel we have a responsibility to defend against these allegations. While we are empathetic to the circumstances that others may find themselves in, we believe the seriousness of this matter deserves full consideration of the facts available. These will further come to light as the legal proceedings unfold. To that end, we posted more information about the litigation to our website in 2014.

2014 Performance

  • There were no reports of alleged human rights violations or violations involving rights of indigenous peoples in 2014.
  • We advanced the corporate Human Rights Policy implementation, including establishing corporate stakeholder engagement and community response standards.
  • A threat and risk assessment of our Manitoba sites was performed by a third-party security consultant to help us understand our security risk exposure and develop appropriate mitigation strategies.
  • At the Rosemont site, which is within 50 kilometres of the Mexican border, we are building relations with border patrol, county sheriffs and the local FBI to monitor any illegal activity in the area and ensure adequate protection for Hudbay workers and assets.
  • At Constancia, more than 170 Hudbay and contract security personnel (over 95% of our security force) received training related to respecting human rights. We also implemented our crisis management plans and trained all crisis action team members.
  • In November 2014, the Hudbay crisis management plans were put into action when the Constancia property was occupied by members of a neighbouring community in an attempt to re-open discussions on the community agreement that had been in place for the past two years. Through a multi-party effort with community members and government officials, the situation was resolved safely and lawfully within two weeks. While the police were called to the site to maintain order, the situation was resolved without use of force and talks continue between Hudbay Peru and community representatives to avoid similar situations in the future.
  • The next step in the process of expanding implementation of our Human Rights Policy is to develop an online training program for all employees and contractors. The training will provide an overview of human rights issues and their relevance to mining, and contribute to a company-wide understanding of Hudbay’s expectations and requirements when it comes to human rights management. We expect the training to support our business units in identifying and addressing site-level training needs and improve their mechanisms to mitigate and prevent impacts.