Putting Our Framework into Conversation with Existing Approaches

Current Methods and Strategies

SHRI is not the only existing initiative focused on ethical resource management. Numerous frameworks abound with varied approaches that promote community engagement, capture environmental risk, and promote best practices.

At SHRI, our intention is not to recreate the wheel. Rather, we want to strengthen resource stewards’ ability to act upon existing frameworks to which they have already committed. We see our approach as a robust articulation of one step (human rights due diligence procedures around water) within the larger mosaic of best practices that begin pre-project and extend long after closeout.

Existing Frameworks and SHRI’s Contribution

Explore common existing frameworks currently governing industry resource management and learn how SHRI’s Realizing Rights for Water Framework integrates into those approaches.

AWS International Water Stewardship Standard 2.0

The widely disseminated AWS approach focuses on helping major water users identify risks and opportunities at the catchment level so that actors can work together to design a sustainable, transparent, collective water stewardship approach.

CEO Water Mandate “Guidance for Companies”

The CEO Water Mandate “Guidance for Companies” specifically focuses on assisting companies in understanding corporate human rights responsibilities and how to build a rights-respecting water stewardship plan in reaction to such responsibilities.

IRMA Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing

The Initiative on Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing supports the development of more socially and environmentally responsible mining practices with detailed expectations for auditors to use as a benchmark across the mining lifecycle.

IHA Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol assesses the sustainability of hydropower projects across social, environmental, technical, and economic criteria and is meant to be implemented throughout a hydropower lifecycle.

ICMM Water Stewardship Framework

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Water Stewardship Framework provides a high-level, standardized approach to water stewardship for the mining and metals industry, recognizing that water connects an operation to the surrounding landscape and communities.

Water Stewardship

AWS International Water Stewardship Standard 2.0

The AWS International Water Stewardship Standard 2.0 aims to help major water users operating within a shared basin to understand major water threats and opportunities at the catchment level. The Standard consists of five overarching steps, which are further broken down into numerous sub-steps, that support actors in realizing five core outcomes: good water governance; sustainable water balance; good water quality status; important water-related areas; safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for all (WASH)

Water Framework

The Realizing Rights for Water Framework

The RRW Framework can specifically support the AWS sections that focus on understanding human rights risks. AWS stresses this aspect but does not provide specific guidance on how to address it. Our guidance fills this gap. Specific applications include:

Step 1 (Gather and Understand), Section 1.5: Gather water-related data for the catchment, including: water governance, water balance, water quality, Important Water-Related Areas, infrastructure, and WASH.
Section 1.5.2: Applicable water-related legal and regulatory requirements shall be identified, including legally-defined and/or stakeholder-verified customary water rights.

CEO Water Mandate

CEO Water Mandate “Guidance for Companies”

The CEO Water Mandate “Guidance for Companies on Respecting the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation: Bringing a Human Rights Lens to Corporate Water Stewardship” provides one of the first and most disseminated overviews of the human right to water in corporate settings and subsequent business responsibilities relating to water stewardship. The Guidance aims to translate the UN-endorsed Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into clear, tangible steps.

Water Framework

The Realizing Rights for Water Framework

The RRW Framework acts upon the Guidance’s call for companies to develop human rights risk-mitigating strategies. Specifically, the Framework fulfills the following:

II. Assess Impacts on the HRWS: assess how the company may be involved in impacts on the HRWS, prioritize impacts for attention where necessary, build a systematic approach to assessment.

IRMA

IRMA Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing

IRMA Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing
The Initiative on Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing provides detailed auditing benchmarks and company recommendations across a variety of environmental and social issues. One core component includes human rights and due diligences.

Water Framework

The Realizing Rights for Water Framework

The RRW Framework and the IRMA Standard are highly complimentary. The RRW Framework enables mining companies to act upon the Standard’s emphasis on conducting human rights due diligence and assessing cultural heritage threats. The outcomes of the IRMA Standard’s Chapter 4.2 on Water Management can serve as direct inputs to the RRW water security assessment. Overall, the RRW Framework breaks down the IRMA Standard’s call for companies to address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into a step-by-step process. Specific applications include:

Chapter 1.3 (Human Rights Due Diligence), Step 1.3.2.: Assessment of Human Rights Risks and Impacts -- establish an ongoing process to identify and assess potential human rights impacts
Chapter 3.7 (Cultural Heritage), Step 3.7.2: Cultural Heritage Screening and Assessment -- undertake a screening process to identify risks and potential impacts to replicable, non-replicable and critical cultural heritage from the proposed mineral processing-related activities.

IHA

IHA Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol scores the environmental, social, technical, and economic/financial qualities of a hydropower project against a criteria of factors laid out in tiers of 1 through 5. One core thematic area covers conducting environmental and social impact assessments. Other criteria dive into the critical themes of resettlement, Indigenous peoples, and public health, among others.

Water Framework

The Realizing Rights for Water Framework

Human rights principles are dispersed throughout thematic areas of the IHA Assessment, especially in the criteria for higher scores on the topics of Resettlement, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and Management, and Labour and Working Conditions. The RRW Framework may help fulfill several of these criteria, such as:

P-5 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (level 5): The social impact assessment incorporates assessment of human rights
Indigenous Peoples (9-15): An assessment of the representation of Indigenous Peoples in the project-affected community has been undertaken, including identification of their rights at risk in relation to the project, utilising local knowledge and expertise.

ICMM

ICMM Water Stewardship Framework

International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Water Stewardship Framework
The ICMM Water Stewardship Framework offers standardized, high-level recommendations on four key thematic areas: transparency and accountability, proactive and inclusive engagement of other water users, the development of a catchment-based approach, and effective water resource management

Water Framework

The Realizing Rights for Water Framework

The RRW Framework expands upon the document’s emphasis on engaging with the local community by identifying how the right to water across its many dimensions could be put at risk by water-intensive activities. Applications include:

Engage Proactively and Inclusively:
Identify and engage people/ groups related to operations, understand community access requirements and concerns, and strive to create shared benefits.
Adopt a catchment- based approach:
Understand the cultural/ economic/ environmental value of water at the catchment scale to identify water stewardship risks and provide context for corporate and operational water management

How Our Framework Enhances Existing Approaches

Many environmental and social assessments and frameworks strongly encourage the integration of human rights due diligence and risk assessments, but very few offer tangible guidance on how to directly conduct such activities. Our framework aims to make human rights accessible and actionable within the bounded parameters of water management. It uniquely offers:

A strategy for tailoring universal human rights principles into specific inquiries based on project conditions

The transfer of robust methodologies from academia to industry settings

The merging of often-siloed environmental, social, and rights considerations

Explore how our framework might expand industry capacity to recognize and respect human rights. Read more about our 3-step methodology and its integration of environmental, social, and rights fact-finding best practices