Over the past seven years, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has developed a Complaints System. However, the Complaints System itself has been the subject of many concerns and critiques. In November 2013, the RSPO 10th General Assembly adopted Resolution 6f, entitled “Guaranteeing Fairness, Transparency and Impartiality in the RSPO Complaints System”. In adopting the Resolution, the General Assembly agreed that the Executive Board (Board of Governors) shall ensure a strict separation of executive powers in handling complaints and grievances in order to align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, particularly the criteria of Principle 31 on effectiveness of non-judicial grievance mechanisms.
A review of the Complaints System was undertaken by Natural Justice and Borneo Conservancy Initiative and completed in December 2014. The final report is available for public viewing since 5 January 2015 on the RSPO website. One of the key recommendations of the Complaints System Review is building an Integrated Complaints System (ICS) for the RSPO, encompassing all components related directly or indirectly to complaints. The ICS aims to improve the governance and decision-making procedures, as well as transparency and accessibility, of the RSPO Complaints System.
Ridge to Reef was appointed as the consultant to develop practical and implementable recommendations and draft procedures for the Integrated Complaints System. We cordially invite you to attend the Public Consultation on the Integrated Complaints System to review the draft procedures (which will be available by late August 2015) and to share your organisation’s approach, practical experience and recommendations with regards to integrated approaches to complaints.
The Public Consultation will be held on:
Date: 9 September 2015 (Wednesday)
Venue: Corrus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The objectives of this Public Consultation are as follows:
- To present an overview of the key issues in the current Complaints System and the draft procedures for the proposed Integrated Complaints System.
- To invite stakeholders to review the draft procedures and share their approaches, practical experiences and recommendations with regards to integrated approaches to complaints.
- As a forum, to identify potential issues and means to address them in the practical implementation of an Integrated Complaints System within the RSPO.
We are pleased to inform you that there will be no participation fee for this event but each organization is limited to 1(one) participant only. Participants are requested to confirm their attendance to [email protected] by Friday, 28 August 2015.
If you are unable to attend the consultation in person but interested to provide feedback on the draft procedures before the finalization of the ICS, please contact Holly Jonas ([email protected]) to arrange a separate discussion.
