With regard to the human rights of local communities, where appropriate, we identify the potential negative impacts of our activities on local communities prior to each project by conducting specific due diligence. We ensure that our action plans comply with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We are also guided by our Charter of Principles and Guidelines regarding Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. In addition, we set up mechanisms to manage grievances in our affiliates, we maintain regular dialogue with our stakeholders, including human rights NGOs, and we engage independent third parties when required.

We take action to respect the human rights of local communities

With regard to respecting human rights in our security activities, we ensure that the personnel assigned to protect our employees and facilities have been vetted and received adequate training. At the same time, we perform analyses each year to assess the human rights risks linked to our security activities at our sites. Our entire approach is consistent with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR), an initiative launched by several States, NGOs and extractive companies in 2012, including TotalEnergies.

Our actions to ensure respect for human rights in our security-related activities

TotalEnergies’ human rights approach is based on strong and formalized commitments, a dedicated organization, an awareness-raising and training program as well as evaluation and follow-up mechanisms aiming at measuring the effectiveness of the Company’s actions.

Our actions are based on our values, as expressed in the Company's Human Rights roadmap, our Code of Conduct, and our compliance with the following international standards and principles: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP), the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR).

To ensure respect for human rights, our governance structure is structured into three levels:

• at the local level through our affiliates’ human rights representatives,
• in each Business Segment through human rights coordinators, and
• at Headquarters through the Human Rights Department (in the Strategy & Sustainability Division), which interacts with the Risk Committee and Ethics Committee, as well as with the cross-business functions involved in human rights (particularly the Security Division), and coordinates human rights-related activities across the Company.

The Company's Human Rights Department leads a quarterly steering committee meeting attended by representatives from each Business Segment and from cross-business functions working on human rights issues. In particular, it ensures that due diligence is carried out as soon as required for a project or new activity. To ensure that its human rights commitments are effectively disseminated, TotalEnergies regularly organizes training and awareness-raising initiatives and has its practices assessed by independent third parties and qualified experts, in addition to the audits and support missions carried out by the Audit & Internal Control Division. In addition, the Ethics Committee operates a whistleblowing system for reporting any situation or behavior in violation of the Code of Conduct.

Our actions and commitments for respecting human rights