Communicate externally about human rights impacts and how the Project addresses them

Scope

The Owner shall communicate externally how the Project addresses identified negative human rights impacts, particularly when concerns are raised by or on behalf of affected parties. Communication methods may include meetings, public events, forums, reports, newsletters, advertising, videos, podcasts, website pages, press releases, media interviews, editorials, articles, or formal public reports. Demographics of the external audience should guide the choice of delivery methods to effectively inform likely impacted parties.

Requirements ¹⁷⁵

Act to Avoid Harm

01.
Identification, assessment, and monitoring of risks to and impacts on vulnerable groups related to content and visuals used in the communication so that it shall not pose any risks to affected impacted parties or personnel.
1. a.
  A land acknowledgment recognizing the Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories shall be included as part of this requirement.
02.
Respect for the right to privacy by ensuring the accuracy of sources and respecting the rights of others, and communication shall not impair the rights or dignity of any individual group nor pose a risk to commercial confidentiality:
1. a.
  Communication shall not disclose information that a reasonable person would deem highly offensive and invasive
2. b.
  Owner shall obtain written consent before including information about persons or groups in communication
03.
The communication shall:
1. a.
  comprehensively report on the identified high-risk human rights impacts from the Human Rights Due Diligence assessment in Activity HRa1.2 as well as the actions taken to prevent, mitigate (from Activity HRa1.3), or remediate (from Activity HRa1.4) those impacts
2. b.
  be complete, meaning that it covers all aspects of these activities and their results, leaving no significant gaps
3. c.
  be accurate, meaning that it correctly describes the activities that were carried out and the results that were achieved without any significant errors or omissions
4. d.
  be clear, meaning that it is written in a way that is easy for impacted parties to understand, with a logical structure, simple language, and effective use of visuals where appropriate
5. e.
  be relevant, meaning that it focuses on the most significant and meaningful aspects of the activities and their results and provides impacted parties with the information they need to understand the social impact of the project
04.

The communication is accessible to the intended audience in a format that the intended audience can understand.

Indicators

The performance indicator is the percentage of reported human rights impacts. The first context indicator is the number of human rights impacts addressed in external communications. The second context indicator is the total number of identified human rights impacts.

To calculate the performance indicator:

Identify the number of human rights impacts reported,
Identify the total number of human rights impacts,
Calculate the percentage of reported human rights impacts according to the requirements.

This is expressed mathematically as:

P = (HRI / N) x 100

P =: percentage of reported human rights impacts according to the requirements
HRI =: number of human rights impacts reported
N =: total number of human rights impacts

Scoring

Outcome threshold

The target outcome threshold is one hundred percent (100%).

Points assignment

Points	Percentage of Reported Human Rights Impacts
1 point	75% percentage of reported human rights impacts
2 points	90% percentage of reported human rights impacts
3 points	100% percentage of reported human rights impacts

Documentation

01.

List of financial, human, and material resources utilized for this activity.
02.

A copy of the full content of the communication.
03.

Publication Record including where and when the communication was published. This could include a link to the webpage where the communication is posted, a screenshot of the webpage, or a copy of the publication notice.
04.

Copies of the publication in all the languages in which it was published. This would provide evidence that the publication was made accessible to impacted parties in their native languages.
05.

Records of communication with impacted parties (if applicable) about the publication of the communication. This could include emails, meeting minutes, or other forms of communication that show impacted parties were informed about the publication of the communication.

Guidance

Guidance on communication reach

There are multiple ways to communicate information and to track reach. Email is an effective communication tool if you have the impacted parties’ email addresses. It is immediately available, easy to customize content, and engagement rates are easy to track. Email also has the added advantage of targeting specific impacted party groups with more certainty. An option to create a mailing list for interested impacted parties on the project website that could be subscribed to is a way to get impacted party contact information. Social media post and website page impressions (how many times the post is displayed) are easily trackable, but harder to ascertain the impacted party group that was reached. In-person and virtual information sessions are highly accurate for targeting specific impacted party groups, easily trackable for number reached, but are most costly and time consuming to execute. Press releases are customizable for content, easily tracked for impressions and unique impressions (the number of times the content was shown to a unique individual), a good way to get a lot of information into one communication method, but can be expensive, and not as accurate in determining which impacted party groups were reached. The method of communication with impacted parties should be designed as part of the Impact Assessment.

Guidance on responsible communication characteristics

According to ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on social responsibility, information relating to social responsibility should be¹⁷⁷:

Complete – address all significant activities and impacts related to social responsibility
Understandable – provided with regard for the knowledge and the cultural, social, educational, and economic background of those who will be involved in the communication. Both the language used, and the manner in which the material is presented, including how it is organized, should be accessible for the impacted parties intended to receive the information
Responsive – be responsive to impacted party interests
Accurate – be factually correct and should provide sufficient detail to be useful and appropriate for its purpose
Balanced – be balanced and fair and should not omit relevant negative information concerning the impacts of an organization's activities
Timely – out of date information can be misleading. Where information describes activities during a specific period of time, identification of the period of time covered will allow impacted parties to compare the performance of the organization with its earlier performance and with the performance of other organizations; and
Accessible – be available to the impacted parties concerned

Additional Resources

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Referenced Source

International Association for Impact Assessment, Social Impact Assessment: Guidance for assessing and managing the social impacts of projects
ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on social responsibility (2021)
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Article 19