In compliance with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, extractive industries should respect and support the dignity of the human person, including the right to safeguard the global commons and sustainably develop natural resources.
Extractive industries should respect the rights of dissenting individuals and organizations to express their dissent through the use of protest, negotiation, and other non-violent means.
Policies and decisions about extractive industries should be transparent and should involve the meaningful participation of the most vulnerable stakeholders.
Extractive industries must advance the common good and be evaluated in the light of their impact on the environment as well as those who are most vulnerable such as: women, indigenous persons, and people who are impoverished.
Extractive industries should employ workers from the local community and help fund its social, educa-tion, and development projects to enhance the local and national economies and to ensure sustained growth.
Extractive industries should respect the role of legitimate governments, in collaboration with civil society, working together to set policies regarding the development and welfare of people and the natural world.
In order to ensure restorative justice for affected families and communities, an independent third party must help resolve the grievances.
Local communities have a right to be consulted and heard in all natural resource exploration and devel-opment in their region. Therefore, extractive industries must adopt policies that mandate that they obtain comprehensive local community consent, Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), before beginning any industry projects. This consultation includes communities’ rights to reject projects.
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These principles were developed by the Inter-religious Working Group on Extractive Industries in Washington, DC.
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