16 March 2021

Prominent migrant rights specialist Andy Hall says that he will not be quitting Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP)’s Expert Stakeholder Human Rights Assessment Commission, following the company’s decision to withdraw its legal action against non-governmental organisation Liberty Shared’s managing director Duncan Jepson.

Hall said SDP’s move reflects a genuine show of good faith from the company’s leadership to sustainability and longer-term growth in areas of human rights, transparency and stakeholder engagement.

“Activists from NGOs, trade unions and community groups need to be able to undertake their important and independent work in promoting responsible corporate conduct in societies across the world, without fear of legal action,” he said in an exclusive statement to The Edge.

“Companies that are receptive to constructive criticism and seek to engage openly and transparently with civil society actors, whatever their views, will surely have available to them stronger and more sustainable due diligence processes to combat human rights risks in their operations and supply chains in the long run, than those that engage in litigation,” he added.

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“Specifically, SPD can also now re-focus its efforts on ensuring that any indicators of forced labour amongst its own foreign workforce are investigated and remediated in a worker-centric and fully transparent way.

“As this legal action for discovery has now been withdrawn, I have decided to continue to work alongside the SDP Board and Impactt as a member of SDP’s Expert Stakeholder Human Rights Assessment Commission, in contributing to support further moves by SDP towards a situation where it’s operations are considered free of systemic forced labour as soon as possible,” he added.