Rio Tinto Partners with Human Rights Organization

(IDEX Online News) - Rio Tinto and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) have signed a three-year agreement to collaborate on developing and promoting human rights tools for international businesses and on further enhancing Rio Tinto’s global human rights policies.

Under the agreement announced today (Monday), Rio Tinto will provide support for the expansion of the DIHR’s Human Rights and Business Country Portal, a freely available website that helps businesses identify, assess and address human rights risks in specific countries. The DIHR will also develop bespoke country risk assessments and advice to Rio Tinto on countries in which it operates or plans to operate.

Rio Tinto’s CEO Tom Albanese said, "Rio Tinto's commitment to human rights has always been an integral part of our code of conduct, The Way We Work. While we have done much good work in this area, we need to constantly keep our policy and practices under review to ensure that we continue to improve our performance. Working with experts in the field is an essential part of this and our partnership with the DIHR will provide us with further insight into specific human rights challenges.”

“DIHR aims to promote human rights around the world by engaging with all actors who interact with human rights,” said DIHR Director Jonas Christoffersen. “Our partnership with Rio Tinto will allow us to engage with important human rights challenges. This is an opportunity for us to promote human rights in the many countries where Rio Tinto operates as well as in the global mining and metals industry,” he added.

Rio Tinto is also a founding member of the Responsible Jewellery Council an international non-profit organization committed to promoting responsible ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices in a transparent and accountable manner throughout the jewelry industry from mine to retail.

DIHR is an independent National Human Rights Institution established by an act of Danish Parliament in 1987 and modeled in accordance with the UN Paris Principles. Its chief objective is to promote and develop knowledge about human rights on a national, regional and international basis, predicated on the belief that human rights are universal, mutually interdependent and interrelated.