Human rights emphasises the responsibilities of business toward human rights impacts from their operations, in addition to the international law obligations on the nation state. A 2011 resolution from the UN – for a business to have a human rights policy, conduct due diligence of its operations, and remediate impacts – has been picked up by many corporations, financiers, and inter-governmental procedures.

These developments have led to various procedures and standards applying to resource operations and land use which are relevant to companies, land owners, communities and government regulators. Some of the processes only arise in particular situations, like the World Bank’s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability and the private-bank analogue Equator Principles III. Others have more general application, with the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises now enabling complaints by any party in relation to the human rights impacts from resources operations of companies operating or registered in Australia, Canada, the UK, USA and many other countries.

In short, human rights now means that compliance with domestic resources law is not sufficient for any resources operation.