2019 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

Session organized by the Responsible Mining Foundation, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the UN Global Compact Brazil, Hivos, PODER, the FGV DIREITO SP Law School of São Paulo, the Swedish Council on Ethics for the AP Funds and the Korean CSO Task Force team on XPXN dam failure.

Interpretation provided in French and Spanish

Webcast of the session:
Meeting link
Meeting number: 846 511 945
Password: nSk4CUJH

Session description:
The failure of dams (be they tailings dams from mining operations, or dams built for hydroelectricity or irrigation) poses huge threats to local communities, workers, and the environment. Recent dam failures have led to catastrophic impacts on human rights, with large numbers of lives lost, livelihoods destroyed and water and land resources severely polluted. This session will examine how dam failures can be better prevented and addressed to avoid, minimise and mitigate these human rights risks. The session will draw lessons from recent dam failures in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Discussions will consider the role of different stakeholders, including companies, governments, civil society and investors in improving how failures are prevented and addressed, and will look towards recommendations targeted to these stakeholder groups.


Session objectives:

1. to highlight the common and repeated issues that arise from major dam failures;
2. to explore the role of companies, governments, civil society and investors in preventing and addressing dam failures; 
3. and to propose recommendations for these key stakeholder groups.

Key discussion questions:
The session will explore questions such as the following:

• How can companies be held accountable for compromising on the safety of construction and maintenance of dams?
• How can governments be encouraged to provide stronger oversight in case of irresponsible corporate behaviour with regards to dams?
• How can companies and governments be made more responsive to the concerns of local communities regarding the location, construction and safety of dams?
• What can companies, governments and investors do to improve transparency on the safety of dams and the consequences of failure?
• How can the provision of remedy for the victims of dam failure be improved?

Format of the session:
The session will start with brief interventions by the Panelists to summarise the key issues they are working on regarding dam failures, followed by a plenary discussion of these cases and issues. The session will then focus on recommendations and the roles to be played by different stakeholders in preventing dam failures and providing effective remedy in the case of failure. This will include a brief intervention by the moderator, representing an investor that is responsible for driving greater transparency in tailings dam management, followed by a round of Panelist interventions and a plenary discussion.


Background to the discussions:
Recent major dam failures have again brought worldwide attention to the huge human rights impacts of such events, and the need to improve how dams are planned, constructed and maintained. Yet a number of systemic issues persist (the most common being lack of transparency, lack of accountability on the part of companies, and lack of government oversight on corporate behaviour), making repeat disasters more likely to occur.

This session will bring together different groups from around the world working on the issue of dam failures.

The cases to be mentioned in the session include:

• The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy (XPXN) hydro dam failure in Lao PDR in 2018 that killed approximately 70 people and displaced about 5000 people;
• The Solai dam disaster in Kenya in 2018, in which an irrigation dam on a private coffee estate overtopped, killing 47 people and displacing around 5000 people;
• The Sonora tailings dam being constructed in Mexico by Grupo Mexico subsidiary, responsible for the worst mining spill in the history of Mexico in that same area in 2014;
• The Mariana (Samarco) tailings dam failure in Brazil in 2015, which killed 19 people and resulted in the country's worst environmental disaster; and
• The Brumadinho dam collapse in Brazil in 2018, which killed about 270 people and destroyed an entire village.

The session will also highlight the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative, led by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Swedish Council of Ethics of the AP Funds.
Finally, the session will also draw on the results of the Responsible Mining Index (RMI) Report 2018 on tailings management and the expanded focus on transparent and responsible tailings management in the framework of the RMI Report 2020.