While the Group strives to maximise the opportunities offered by its activities to make a positive contribution to the development and cohesion of regions and local communities, the Group also has a responsibility to prevent the potential negative impacts of these activities. This is one of the five salient issues identified and presented in VINCI’s Guide on Human Rights. This guide, which was approved by VINCI’s Executive Committee and follows on directly from the VINCI Manifesto, is supported by the Chief Executive Officer and applies to all Group companies. From an operational perspective, project directors have primary responsibility for managing community relations. Depending on the project, they may be supported by social responsibility managers, sociologists or community outreach officers.
Group companies and their customers have shared responsibilities and must work closely together to identify, avoid, mitigate and remedy negative impacts on local communities. The Group’s policy in this area is built around three key areas: social, cultural, heritage and economic issues; land-related issues; and local community engagement and dialogue issues.
To define its framework for action, the Group took inspiration from various reference documents, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Bill of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
For the Group, local communities mean populations living within the area of influence of its projects. VINCI also pays particular attention to indigenous and tribal peoples, who are specifically protected under international law as they are more vulnerable to infringements of their rights. In its supplement to VINCI’s Guide on Human Rights, the Group highlights the specific status of indigenous and tribal peoples, as well as the need for vigilance to respect and ensure that other parties respect their rights, safeguard their living spaces, and preserve their livelihoods. It also states that in the event of any impacts on indigenous and tribal peoples, a prior consultation must have been completed, ensuring their free, prior and informed consent as defined by international standards.
Managing impacts on local communities involves two phases:
Applying a cross-cutting approach throughout a project’s life cycle, dialogue must be developed with the communities affected. This dialogue may be the responsibility of various stakeholders, and primarily the project owner.
VINCI has formalised guidelines to protect the fundamental rights of affected communities and prevent the potential negative impacts of its activities. They include detailed recommendations to prevent any infringements of the individual and/or collective rights of local communities and indigenous and tribal peoples. The main areas addressed by these guidelines include:
Social and environmental issues: local communities may be subject to a project’s potential impacts over the short, medium and long term. This category of impacts covers:
