Amid increasing global pressure to respect human rights and sustain business practices, Indonesian businesses face a new challenge: how to ensure that economic gains do not come at the expense of environmental damage and human rights violations.
Over the past five years, CRU Indonesia has recorded more than 240 land conflicts in the plantation and forestry sectors. Behind these figures lie real stories of tension between companies and local communities — ranging from disruption to residents’ access to clean water to the loss of their livelihoods due to corporate expansion. Such conflicts not only harm communities and worsen relations between communities and companies but also have the potential to constitute human rights violations, thereby threatening long-term business and investment stability, as well as the region’s positive image and competitiveness.
As global awareness grows about the potential impact of large-scale business operations on human rights, respect for human rights through a Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) approach has become the new standard in corporate governance. The basic principle is fundamental yet straightforward: companies must be able to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for any adverse impacts on human rights and the environment arising from their activities, and remedy any violations that have occurred. HRDD is not merely a compliance tool, but a new way of thinking about business sustainability.
One concrete example of this transformation can be seen in the HRDD training facilitated by CRU Indonesia for a large plantation company in Indonesia. In this training, management and field staff were encouraged to understand how environmental issues, such as water pollution and soil degradation, can become human rights issues when people’s rights to health, livelihoods, and a healthy environment are compromised. This process helped company staff to review internal policies, including strengthening the complaint system and establishing more open communication patterns with the surrounding community.
CRU Indonesia always chooses an approach that places dialogue and mediation at the heart of conflict resolution. By involving all parties, including companies, communities and local governments in a participatory manner, CRU Indonesia helps all parties find a balance between economic interests and social justice.
“Conflict prevention is just as important as conflict management, and HRDD is one of the efforts to prevent conflict,” said Ginanjar Tamimy, CRU Indonesia facilitator, during a training session.
However, implementing human rights-respecting policies through HRDD in Indonesia remains a low priority. Many companies still view it as an additional task rather than a long-term investment. Various challenges exist, including limited technical capacity in the field and national regulations that do not fully support companies’ obligations to respect human rights and to implement HRDD. On the other hand, the global market — especially in Europe — is increasingly demanding transparency and compliance with the principles of human rights and environmental protection in the supply chain.
Going forward, the challenge is not only to implement human rights respect policies based on HRDD as an administrative procedure, but also to make them part of the company’s core business strategy and quality control of its business processes. The government needs to strengthen policies and cross-sector coordination in this regard. At the same time, mediation institutions such as CRU Indonesia can play an essential role in building bridges of trust amid often conflicting interests.
Human rights and environmentally-based business governance are ultimately not about avoiding conflict, but about developing social acceptance as one of the foundations for building a fair economic future. CRU Indonesia believes that sustainable development cannot be achieved without respect for human rights and environmental sustainability.
This article was first published in Indonesian on the CRU website on November 3, under the title “Bisnis yang Bertanggung Jawab: Meniti Jalan Tata Kelola Berbasis HAM dan Lingkungan”.
