Call to strip Rio Tinto of global ranking

Indigenous groups have called for Rio Tinto to be stripped of its status as a global human rights leader.

Kimberley Land Council chief executive Nolan Hunter. Picture: Chris Gundy/KLC

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups have called for Rio Tinto to be stripped of its status as a global human rights leader, following the company’s blasting of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara region.

Thirty-five indigenous and human rights groups have sent a letter to the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, a global body based in The Netherlands.

The letter, also sent to Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson and chief executive Jean-­Sebastien Jacques, calls for Rio’s removal from the Benchmark list, which ranks the company as the highest-ranked miner globally on human rights issues.

The letter says Rio’s top ranking “is misleading to investors and other stakeholders who rely on the Benchmark to provide ­robust, credible information on companies’ human rights records.”

The Benchmark assesses 200 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies annually against a set of 100 indicators based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

In 2019, it suspended Brazilian mining company Vale from the list after the dam collapse at the company’s Corrego do Feijao mine in Brazil.

The letter comes after Reconciliation Australia revoked its endorsement of Rio Tinto in response to its destruction in May of the culturally sensitive caves on its Brockman iron ore mine site. The caves contained artefacts indicating tens of thousands of years of continuous human occupation.

“Rio Tinto has quite literally blown up its social licence to operate as far as Aboriginal communities are concerned,” said Wayne Bergmann, a Kimberley Aboriginal leader and signatory to the letter.

Chief executive of the Kimberley Land Council Nolan Hunter said Rio Tinto’s actions “show a total lack of regard for their obligations to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people and their human rights obligations.”

He said the PKKP had engaged in a seven-year battle to protect the site. “For Rio Tinto to claim the blast was a misunderstanding is highly insulting to traditional owners and all Aboriginal people who have fought so hard for rights over their land.”

Signatories to the letter include indigenous land councils, the Human Rights Law Centre, Oxfam and international human rights organisations. Rio was contacted for comment.