Mozambique and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights

In recent years, Mozambique has become the focus of increasing international investment in the exploration and exploitation of its abundant mineral resources, but ongoing instability creates challenges for the security of operating companies and their workers.

State and private security providers have been deployed to safeguard operational security in Mozambique’s extractive sector for several decades. However, in the last 20 years there has been a growing focus on the need to manage security operations so as to reduce the risk of human rights abuses.

In 2021 the government signalled its intent to engage with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, or VPs, developed in 2002 as a set of international standards that serves as a regulatory framework for security relationships between extractive companies, state and private security actors, and local communities.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive resource on the VPs and their potential utility in promoting best practice in human rights across the extractive industry in Mozambique.

The paper is also available as a PDF download in Portuguese: this includes a copy of the VPs translated into Swahili, which appears as Annex 5.