Human Rights Scenarios – Telecommunications Sector
TASK TWO: HUMAN RIGHTS DUE DILIGENCE MAPPING EXERCISE
Using the allegations levied at Telinter and Inter2 as a guide, enter your company’s policies, assessment procedures and
management systems for each of the listed allegations.
Allegations
Human Rights
Company’s Policies,
Assessment Procedures and
Management Systems
Eight per cent of Telinter’s factory
workers in Hopia have contracted
cancer in the last year. All of the
factory workers make mobile phone
batteries that contain nickel-cadmium,
which other companies have phased
out because of its alleged hazardous
effects.
1. Right to life
Policies
28. Right to health
25. Right to enjoy just and favourable
conditions of work (including rest and
leisure)
Assessment Procedures
Management Systems
Telinter is the largest purchaser of
tungsten from southern Didion, where
there is a longstanding ethnic conflict
over local minerals. The southern
Didions claim that Telinter favors the
Didi ethnic group by exclusively
purchasing all minerals from Didi
traders, and turning a blind eye to
them taking a 20% cut on all minerals.
In protest, the southern Didion
community recently organised a
demonstration. They claim that at the
demonstration, Telinter’s private
security forces assaulted fifteen
people, and injured ten.
4. Right not to be subjected to torture,
cruel, inhuman and/or degrading
treatment or punishment
Last year, consumer watchdogs
exposed Inter2’s practice of selling
personal information to various
industry sectors, including insurance
companies for thousands of Didion
dollars. Local NGOs also allege that
Inter2 passed the personal information
of five trade unionists to the Didion
government. The Didion government
arrested the five unionists and charged
them with treason. The activists were
prevented from consulting a lawyer.
9. Right to a fair trial
Policies
20. Right to freedom of assembly
19. Right to freedom of opinion,
information and expression
2. Right to liberty and security
(including freedom from arbitrary
arrest, detention or exile)
Assessment Procedures
Management Systems
6. Right to equality before the law,
equal protection of the law, nondiscrimination
6. Right to equality before the law,
equal protection of the law, nondiscrimination
Policies
Assessment Procedures
21. Right to freedom of association
11. Right to privacy
Management Systems
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Human Rights Scenarios – Telecommunications Sector
Company’s Policies,
Assessment Procedures and
Management Systems
Allegations
Human Rights
Residents of Hopia have complained
that their water supply has reduced
significantly since Telinter established
its factory in eastern Hopia. The
production of microchips requires the
use of a large amount of local water.
Women now have to walk on average
five hours a day to collect water from a
nearby source. During the dry season,
children accompany their mothers to
collect water and, as a result, do not
go to school.
27. Right to an adequate standard of
living (Housing, Food, Water &
Sanitation)
Inter2 is well known for employing
‘anti-union’ tactics. Last year, three
employees were sacked for alleged
poor punctuality; however, the exemployees claim they were dismissed
after being caught at a meeting
discussing their working conditions.
One employee claims that since
management found out he was
responsible for drafting a flyer on the
benefits of joining a trade union, and
that he was an active member of the
local Socialist Party, he was
marginalised in the workplace and
frequently threatened with dismissal.
21. Right to freedom of association
Fighting between local unemployed
Hopians and the migrant Jopians has
increased over the last six months.
Local Hopians complain that Telinter
specifically employs female migrants
to work in the factory because they are
‘cheap labour’. On average, Jopians
received one-third less in salary than a
female Hopian worker. All Jopian
workers have to submit their passport
on arrival, and are expected to work
on average, 60 hours a week, without
overtime, despite being contracted to
work 45 hours. The female migrant
workers reported to the local press
that the excessive working hours
prevent them from spending time with
their children. However, they do not
have any formal way to complain
about this situation to Telinter’s
management.
8. Right to access effective remedies
29. Right to education
Policies
Assessment Procedures
16. Right to marry and form a family
15. Right of protection for the child
Management Systems
Policies
26. Right to form and join trade unions,
and the right to strike
6. Right to equality before the law,
equal protection of the law, nondiscrimination
Assessment Procedures
25. Right to enjoy just and favourable
conditions of work (including rest and
leisure)
19. Right to freedom of opinion,
information and expression
Management Systems
24. Right to work
Policies
25. Right to enjoy just and favourable
conditions of work (including rest and
leisure)
6. Right to equality before the law,
equal protection of the law, nondiscrimination
Assessment Procedures
12. Right to freedom of movement
16. Right to marry and form a family
Management Systems
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