HRIA Case Study: Human Rights Assessment of Goldcorp's Marlin Mine
Author(s): Bob Walker and others
Publisher: 2010, On Common Ground Consultants Inc.
In 2008, a group of socially responsible shareholders called on Goldcorp to undertake an independent Human Rights Impact Assessment of the mine.
The assessment sets out how the Marlin Mine’s presence and operations have affected the human rights situation, and the extent to which company policies, procedures and practices comply with international human rights standards. It provides findings and recommendations for improving respect for human rights at the mine, as well as more general lessons-learned for integrating human rights into Goldcorp’s global operations. Goldcorp has committed to issuing a public response to the recommendations, including a detailed action plan for the Marlin Mine and potential future expansions.
However, some people have other views about the assessment. Goldcorp is accused of a lack of transparency, independence and inclusion regarding to the assessment. For example, the steering committee represents merely stakeholders and representatives of Goldcorp. Besides, in advance of the assessment the focus was only to optimize the opportunities for the company to continue operating profitably in Guatemala. So, the mine would not be closed if the human rights situation was below standard. According to the critics, this is not an objective assessment.
View the different opinions on http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/GoldcorpHRIA
Questions and indicators from the Human Rights Compliance Assessment tool developed by the Danish Institute for Human Rights were used to guide the assessment of the compliance with international human rights standards.
The Goldcorp report is also available in Spanish.
