Natural Resources and Human Rights Conference, October 4 and 5, 2002

Canadian Oil Companies, Engineering and Geomatics Professionals and CSR Overseas
by Bruce Calderbank

Introduction

Starting in April 2001 the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre has been working with the Canadian Institute of Resources Law on a project which is entitled “Human Rights and Natural Resources Development”. The funds for this project were provided by the Alberta Law Foundation.

The topic of “Human Rights and Natural Resources Development” is a very broad one and potentially includes a wide range of human rights and civil liberties issues as they arise in connection with a variety of natural resource developments, both domestically and abroad. It is also true that a wide range of remedies might be considered to better protect human rights and civil liberties in resource development contexts.

Early on in the work of the project, participants decided to focus on the human rights issues which arise in connection with oil and gas development in Alberta. For the time being, this left many important matters untouched. One of these is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The project has been very fortunate to have had a volunteer researcher -- Bruce Calderbank -- devote a considerable amount of time to examining the efforts which have been made to address the corporate social responsibility of Alberta oil and gas companies working abroad. He has prepared the following report on this topic which includes several very useful appendices. The report provides an excellent foundation for further work on this topic, including further projects which look at legal issues in the realm of CSR.

We invite you to read Mr. Calderbank’s study and extend our sincere thanks to him for the work he has carried out. Questions about the report should be directed to Bruce at [email protected].

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Linda McKay-Panos, Executive Director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, and Janet Keeping, Research Associate with the Canadian Institute of Resources Law, co-managers of the Project.