VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Members of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) on Thursday committed to implementing the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) – a world first for a mining association.

The VPs were created in 2000 to help extractive sector companies balance the obligation to respect human rights while protecting the assets and people at their operations.

“With Canada’s chairmanship of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative (VPI) this past year, it was timely to make this announcement. It underscores MAC members’ commitments to respect human rights and to operate responsibly with respect to security practices. Our members take their responsibilities to protect the safety of its people and the communities where they operate seriously, and the VPI is one important way that they can demonstrate that commitment,” stated MAC president and CEO Pierre Gratton.

According to the association, several members already formally participate in the VPI and several others apply the VPs for their operations abroad. The MAC explained that its member companies that rely on private or public security forces have committed to implementing a human rights and security approach consistent with the VPs and based on a determination of risk at mining facilities that they control.

The participating members with international operations will also report on their implementation yearly in the MAC’s 'Towards Sustainable Mining' progress report.

The announcement coincides with the annual plenary meeting of the VPI, which is being held this week in Ottawa. The meeting effectively concludes Canada’s chairpersonship of the VPI, a position it has held since April 2016.

The Netherlands will chair the VIP for 2017/18.

The Canadian federal government has identified the VPs as one of six leading standards in Canada’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy for the extractive sector. The CSR strategy also highlights MAC’s TSM initiative, which has recently been adopted by the national mining associations of Finland, Argentina and Botswana.

"This is the right step in a positive direction for the mining industry and I applaud MAC's leadership to place human rights principles at the forefront of corporate responsibility," Canada’s Minister of International Trade François-Philippe Champagne said.