Oil majors agree to only deal with suppliers that respect human rights

Some of the world’s leading oil companies BP, Equinor, Shell and Total have signed a pact that will ensure they work with suppliers who respect human rights in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and that care for their people

CEOs of the oil companies announced that they agreed to join forces to create a collaborative approach to human rights supplier assessments in the energy industry, Shell said in a press release today.

“The objective of this initiative is to create an industry framework for human rights supplier assessments. Results of conducted assessments will be shared with the participating companies through an independent third party. Work is currently ongoing to establish the assessment criteria and sharing mechanism,” the companies said in a joint statement.

According to the pact, the expected outcome is to make it easier and more efficient for suppliers to demonstrate how they respect human rights and care for their people.

“The sharing mechanism across the participating parties aims to support the improvement of working conditions in our companies’ supply chains” the group said.

Increasingly the operations of oil companies come under scrutiny over allegations of dealing with organisations and government that commit gross human rights abuses as have been widely reported in the Niger Delta.
The group said the initiative supports the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 8, which is to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all,” reads the press statement.

The initiative however does not include collaboration on selection of suppliers, which continues to remain the independent decision of each participant.