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Human Rights

Human Rights

Respect for human rights is a foundational value at Barrick and a central part of our sustainability vision.

At Barrick we recognize our responsibility to respect human rights.

43%

of employees are union members or have collective bargaining agreements in place.

Training

Human rights training program updated and rolled out

We have zero tolerance for violations of human rights committed by employees, affiliates, or any third parties acting on behalf or related to any of our operations.

All employees and relevant suppliers receive training on our human rights expectations with additional specialist human rights training given to highly exposed workers such as security personnel. Any human rights grievance or incident is immediately escalated to corporate for investigation. Grievances can be received at site level through our grievance mechanisms, through internal or external audits, and through our anonymous hotline.

We also conduct a human rights assessment at all our mines on, at most, a three-year cycle, with those mines most exposed to human rights risks conducting on a two-year cycle and submitted to independent assessments.

In 2022 we undertook an independent human rights assessment at three sites: Lumwana (Zambia), Veladero (Argentina) and Tongon (Cote d’Ivoire).

Full details of our approach can be found below and our standalone Human Rights Report.

North Mara: Towards and safer and more secure community

North Mara is in a remote part of Tanzania and is an area historically beset with social issues including significant immigration to the area, civil unrest due to poverty and limited law enforcement capacity. There have also been allegations of human rights violations linked to local police and private security forces. We are committed to addressing and resolving these allegations, and have worked to instill our partnership philosophy and to develop robust community relations grounded in trust and transparency.

See full case study in our Sustainability Report

Management approach: Human rights

Governance and accountability

Ultimate responsibility in regard to human rights sits with our Board , assisted by Board Committees including the Audit & Risk Committee, ESG & Nominating Committee and the management-level Environmental & Social Oversight Committee (E&S Committee).

The E&S Committee meets quarterly to review our sustainability performance, including any emerging potential human rights concerns.

Implementation of our group-level Human Rights policies is at the site level, with each site, led by its General Manager, empowered to lead the programs necessary to respect human rights and address the salient human rights risks at their specific mine.

Day-to-day responsibility for management of our human rights performance sits with our Group Sustainability Executive, who is a member of the Company’s executive committee.  The Group Sustainability Executive is supported by regional sustainability leads.

Performance on our human rights program is measured in our Sustainability Scorecard and impacts the compensation of our partners across the company from all functions and disciplines.

Policies and procedures

We have zero tolerance for human rights violations wherever we operate. We avoid causing or contributing to human
rights violations and actively facilitate access to remedy. Our commitment to respect human rights is codified in our standalone Human Rights Policy and informed by the expectations of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs), and the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises.

Our Policy includes commitments to:

  • Provide training on our human rights expectations to all new employees and all relevant existing employees.
  • Conduct human rights due diligence for all new projects as well as significant modifications to existing operations where there is the potential for negative human rights impacts, and seek to employ reasonable measures to mitigate those impacts.
  • Comply, and demand that all suppliers and contractors comply with all national laws, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Core Conventions.
  • Conduct periodic audits and reviews at different sites, of different operating units, and of different contractors, to give us confidence that we are meeting the letter and spirit of this Policy. We may conduct audits ourselves or use external third parties. Where appropriate, we will establish performance improvement action plans to respond to the findings of these audits and reviews.

Our policy is implemented on the ground via our Human Rights Program

Human Rights Assessments

The foundation of our approach is a stand-alone, independent human rights assessment program for the sites we operate that is aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Assessments are conducted by a respected independent third-party consultancy, and focus on actual, potential, and perceived human rights impacts on the rightsholder by our operations and all contractors, suppliers, and business partners (including government entities such as public security). The assessments include a review of the policies and procedures at each site to determine whether they effectively prevent and mitigate the risks identified. 

Each site is assessed on a periodic cycle of two to three years, depending on identified risks to the rightsholder. The focus is continuous improvement, rather than one-time, standalone assessments. This approach allows for tracking the actions taken in response to impacts identified and assessing their effectiveness. The assessments also identify good practice and promote sharing across sites on how to best manage potential negative impacts. 

Further detail regarding our approach to Human Rights and our Human Rights Program is available in our standalone Human Rights Report, which was published in November 2021.

Security

Since 2010, we have been a member of and followed the VPs in our dealings with public and private security providers, local communities and potential victims of human rights violations.

The VPs require us to embed human rights principles in contractual requirements with security providers. We require security personnel at our sites to undergo pre-employment screening that includes a criminal background check. Contractor security personnel must also provide a proof of background check when assigned to the site.

Security personnel also receive specific training on human rights, the VPs and Barrick’s Use of Force Procedure, which is aligned with the UN Guidelines for the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. Barrick employees do not carry firearms. Some mines also have memoranda of understandings in place with public security agencies or local police forces, all of which reflect the terms of the VPs.

Our indigenous partners

Indigenous Peoples often have profound and cultural connections to their lands and waters. This can be tied to their physical, spiritual, cultural and economic well-being. We operate in remote regions; some with a significant population of Indigenous Peoples. Due to their special relationship with the land and long history of marginalization, we recognize that additional consideration should be given to our engagement with Indigenous stakeholders to ensure the full respect of their rights

Our commitment to recognizing the unique rights and social, economic and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples and their distinct interests and concerns is set out in our Human Rights Policy and is informed by the ICMM position statement to obtain free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.

Through the Policy, we commit to respect the history, culture and traditional ways of Indigenous Peoples, their standing as distinct, self-determining peoples with collective right, and their interests in land, waters and the environment.

We require all sites with exposure to Indigenous Peoples to develop and implement an Indigenous Peoples Plan outlining specific actions to engage, address impacts and provide opportunities to Indigenous Peoples.

Key targets and metrics

  • Percentage of security personnel receiving training on human rights
  • Corporate human rights benchmark score (In comparison to the 56 extractive companies assessed by the Corporate Human Rights benchmark’s methodology. Barrick is ranked in the top 25% in the extractives industry).
  • Independent human rights impact assessments with zero significant findings at high-risk sites
  • Upgrade controversy listed by one of the ESG Rating Agencies.
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