"Following pressure, Vale withdraws from UN social responsibility network-The decision was taken after civil society called for the company to be delisted due to the dam burst in Brumadinho (MG)", 28 May 2019

On Tuesday 28th, the mining company Vale withdrew from the UN Global Compact...The...decision...was taken after pressure from civil society. In February 2019, an international group of organisations formally requested the United Nations to delist the company due to the bursting of the tailings dam in Brumadinho (MG) that happened on 25 January…“The disaster...shows that favouring profit over safety has been Vale’s standard operating procedure...It took another lethal dam collapse with immeasurable human suffering and environmental destruction for Vale to announce a long due decision to decommission high-risk “upstream dams” that are built with obsolete and unsafe technology.” [say the organizations]...Vale deployed extensive political and financial resources to resist legal accountability for the first disaster. The company adopted a discourse of commitment to the highest standards of corporate social responsibility, while failing to review its business model or its processes and policies in order to prevent new catastrophes.“Such a method of doing business is in conflict with the principles and spirit of the Global Compact,” say the organisations. “Vale must bear the consequences for its failure to prevent such an outrageous disaster from happening just three years after the Mariana dam burst.”...[T]he organisations request that the mining company should submit regular reports on measures taken to remediate the environmental damage caused by both the Brumadinho dam and the one at Mariana...[and]...that the Board of the Compact demand that Vale should demonstrate through concerted action that it is fully committed to changing its corporate culture, policies and processes to become a truly human rights and environment respecting company…[O]rganisations...: Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Clínica de Direitos Humanos da UFMG, Conectas Direitos Humanos,...Derechos, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales..., Defesa dos Territórios Frente à Mineração,...Due Process of Law Foundation...,...Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales...,...International Federation for Human Rights...,...Fundación para el desarrollo de políticas sustentables..., Global Justice Clinic of the New York University, Greenpeace Brasil, Justiça Global,...Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens..., Articulação Internacional dos Atingidos e Atingidas pela Vale, MiningWatch Canada,...Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research..., SOMO...