"Business, Human Rights and Uganda's oil. Part III: Respect and Remedy: Implementing corporate responsibility under the UN Framework on Business and Human"

The following is the third in a series of four reports exploring business and human rights issues in Uganda’s oil sector. This series is a collaboration between IPIS vzw and ActionAid Uganda.

...Firstly, businesses are expected to express their commitment to the Guiding Principles through a statement of policy that meets certain benchmarks. Secondly, businesses should carry out human rights due diligence, in order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address actual and potential adverse human rights impacts. This should start with a human rights impact assessment. The findings of the assessment should then be integrated into relevant internal functions and processes, and the business should take appropriate action. This progress should be tracked. Further, businesses should externally communicate how they are addressing human rights impacts. Lastly, businesses should take concrete steps to enable remediation when wrongs do occur, through adopting their own grievance mechanisms at the operational level, and coordinating with other State and non-State mechanisms.

These expectations are all discussed in the context of the presence of the main players in Uganda’s oil industry – Tullow, Total and CNOOC, in addition to other private actors – in order to note where best practice is being fulfilled, and where gaps are present. This is aimed at offering constructive advice to companies on how they can ensure a positive relationship between business and human rights in Uganda’s oil sector.