Operational Level Grievance Mechanisms for Human Rights

Abstract

Abstract Operational level grievance mechanisms enable communities to raise issues with companies at the site level. They are an important part of a company’s approach to strategic stakeholder engagement, helping to reinforce constructive long term relationships and generating feedback that can help to drive continuous improvement. Community grievance mechanisms are part of the ‘Access to Remedy’ expectations defined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Remedy provides options for people who believe that a company has infringed their rights to seek redress. These options can be state-based judicial mechanisms, state based non-judicial mechanisms, and non-state based mechanisms. Operational level grievance mechanisms fall into the third category. IPIECA, the oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues, is leading a two-year collaborative learning project to test the implementation of operational level grievance mechanisms on the ground and then produce tools, templates and practical guidance. The project is based on a series of pilot projects implemented by member companies either establishing a new grievance mechanism or improving an existing one. The pilots are diverse; they span three continents, onshore and offshore, and conventional and unconventional projects. Early learning from the pilots suggests that the vast majority of community grievances against companies can be solved amicably and promptly, particularly if they are addressed before they become acute. This finding underscores IPIECA members’ belief that grievance mechanisms should generally be part of a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process. Industry experience also indicates that grievance mechanisms should be risk-based and responsive to local needs and circumstances rather than following detailed prescriptive or one-size-fits-all solutions. However, there are some basic principles and approaches that apply to all community grievance mechanisms. This paper tells the story of IPIECA’s learning project on community grievance mechanisms. It presents IPIECA’s findings from the pilots to date and its work to create tools, templates and practical guidance to help businesses implement community grievance mechanisms that work for both the company and the community.