Twelve human rights and environmental groups...raised serious concerns about Glencore’s newly published Sustainability Report...Glencore’s claim in the report that it had “zero” serious human rights incidents amid local communities came in for particularly sharp criticism...Glencore appears to apply a narrow definition of what constitutes a “serious human rights incident”, defining it...as a “fatality that occurs as a result of some kind of an interaction with the community”. International human rights law and standards cover a much broader range of abuses...“Glencore’s narrow definition of a serious human rights incident is not only wrong in law, but permits the company to report only a fraction of the human rights abuses that occur as part of its operations,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, Executive Director of...RAID...

...Glencore’s report mentions two deadly incidents that occurred at its mining site or within its wider operations, without recording them as serious human rights incidents or linking them to its operations. This includes a case in June 2019 at the Katanga Copper Company (KCC) site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where at least 30 artisanal miners died after a mineshaft collapsed. Another case in February 2019 occurred when a truck transporting sulphuric acid to Glencore’s Mutanda Mine in Congo crashed and spilled its contents onto two vehicles, including a local bus, killing at least 21 people...Glencore’s report further disregarded serious concerns of human rights violations raised by local communities and workers at some of Glencore’s sites including unsustainable mining practices and working conditions. There is no mention of a class action issued in the US by parents and children from Congo accusing Glencore and other companies of producing and selling cobalt mined under hazardous conditions...Glencore also provides very little information on corruption and other governance issues that the company faces...The civil society groups concluded that Glencore’s omissions and its downplaying of serious environmental, social and governance concerns can obscure facts from investors ahead of its AGM...