Respect Human Rights

Galp is committed to respect internationally recognised human rights.

We undertake to act so that none of our management actions and activities directly or indirectly originate any abuse or violation of human rights in any geographic location, context or activity throughout the value chain and sphere of influence with respect to our stakeholders.

In our Human Rights Policy, which is aligned with internationally recognised standards, including the 10 principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations as well as the Code of Conduct of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of indigenous communities (ILO 169 and IFC PS7), we reinforce the commitment to respect, promote and enforce Human Rights within our stakeholders – employees, communities, suppliers, partners and customers – adopting measures to prevent our operations from causing, directly or indirectly, any abuses or violations of the internationally recognised Human Rights.

We are also conscious that, to pursue our energy transition strategy, and to ensure support from investors, it will be fundamental to guarantee compliance with the EU Taxonomy. This will not only promote transparency regarding activities that are environmentally sustainable, but also the alignment of companies with a set of Human Rights frameworks.

Moreover, Galp is committed to generate shared value in the regions where it operates by identifying opportunities and linking Galp’s success to the progress of such communities thus promoting the social, economic and environmental progress therein in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Galp´s Human Rights Policy is implemented in our strategy and activities, and pursues an ongoing process of due diligence to ensure the assessment of Galp´s impacts on human rights. 

Address all findings and potential impacts

We have a due diligence process in place to proactively identify and assess potential impacts and risks related to Human Rights, aiming to cover all our operations, value chain or other activities related to our business, new acquisitions, and joint ventures. Following this, for the past years, Galp has been undertaking independent third-party human rights assessments in its operations throughout Europe, Africa and Brazil, and as a result, action plans were defined. All this information is publicly available for all stakeholders and can be consulted in the Human Rights Annual status report.

Galp recognises regarding Human Rights, the company must do more, acting proactively to identify initiatives that can mitigate potential findings and create positive impact across all our operations. For that, in our 2023-25 Sustainability Roadmap, we have defined the following actions to be implemented:

  • Create an internal dedicated team responsible for managing the human rights topic
  • Conduct human rights risk assessments in relevant geographies, at least every 3 years
  • Define a plan to address the assessments’ findings and implement the needed remediation or improvement actions
  • Reassess needed geographies to guarantee that “100% geographies assessed in the last 3 years” remains valil

Human Rights Assessment

To ensure that Galp’s businesses properly mitigate the risk of affecting human rights, Galp looks at potential impacts through a human rights framework to assess whether additional mitigation is required. The results of this evaluation forms an integral part of our internal procedures to ensure effective responses to prevent and mitigate these impacts, and monitoring of the effectiveness of those measures.

We are evaluating impacts on human rights in the context of the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (John Ruggie Table). This analysis covers the assessment of all our operations in the countries where we are established – Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Namibia, Portugal, São Tomé and Principe, Spain and Eswatini – and envisages the definition of an action plan to ensure that our practices are aligned with our Human Rights Policy. This work involves:

  • profiling operations by geography/country;
  • profiling human rights by geography/country;
  • identifying impacts and/or risks of the operations profile on the human rights profile by geography/country;
  • analysis of the implications for human rights;
  • assessment and risk quantification;
  • proposed actions to identify measures to mitigate impacts;
  • identification of the legal requirement and/or regulations which frame each of the impacts/risks;
  • establishment of grievance mechanisms;
  • implementation of a stakeholder engagement plan.
Our latest findings

2018 - The assessment included the identification and assessment of human rights risks and impacts on Galp’s operations, including the retail stations, LPG and lubricants storage parks and the minority participating interest ownership in the Hydrocarbons Exploration & Production activities to be carried out in Block 4 of the Rovuma Basin.

2021 - We conducted human rights assessments on Galp operations in Mozambique in which Galp has been present for more than 60 years on the downstream fuels retail businesses, as well as in one of the largest natural gas projects in the world (Rovuma)

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security Arrangements
  • Community Impacts

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

2018 - This assessment was directed at the exploratory and appraisal drilling program in the offshore blocks 6 (Galp operator), 5, 11 and 12 (Galp minority stake) with the purpose of identifying the human rights implications in relation to the potential impacts of the project’s footprint and to provide mitigation measures (if required) to reduce the probability of these risks occurring. The objective is therefore to ensure that the rights of stakeholders, directly or indirectly affected by the project, are protected and not negatively impacted by the project. No remediation plan was needed until the current project stage.

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Labour Standards
  • Presence and support to government
  • Loss of Fishing Livelihoods
  • Community Health and Safety
  • Stakeholder Engagement and Access to Remedy

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

2018 - We have conducted a Human Rights assessment within the scope of NP 4469-1 Certification (Social Responsibility Management System, aligned with ISO 26000) in Portugal and Spain (Gijon and Valencia). This standard focus on 7 relevant aspects, related to social responsibility, namely:

  • Organizational Governance
  • Human Rights and Labour Practices (including Safety)
  • Environment
  • Fair operational practices
  • Consumer issues
  • Engagement and development of communities

No findings were identified in the external audit, related to Human Rights and Labour Practices.
In 2018, we also developed workshops in Portugal and Mozambique focused on grievance mechanisms which comprised among other matters, a framework approach to community consultation. These workshops were directed to a specific group at Galp which in the course of its work is or may be in contact with communities exposed to human rights issues. 

2019 - In 2019 we conducted a human rights assessment on the activities of the headquarters of Petrogal Brasil and Rabo Branco field, in which we interviewed workers and service providers on a number of topics including health and safety, child labour, discrimination and diversity, vulnerable groups and communities, among others.
Also, in 2019 we implemented a set of training sessions for the entire organisation on the topic of diversity, namely unconscious bias.

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Human Rights and Labour Practices
  • Engagement and development of communities 

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

2020 - In July 2020 we concluded the human rights assessment in Sonangalp, a JV between Galp and Sonangol. The assessment included interviewing employees and service providers on various topics, including health and safety child labour, discrimination and diversity, vulnerable groups and communities, among others.

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security Arrangements
  • Community Impacts

For each finding we identified:

  • Recommendation
  • Level at Risk

2021 - In 2021 we conducted human rights assessments on the retail and marketing business related Joint-Venture where Galp has a material stake named ENACOL

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security Arrangements
  • Community Impacts

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

2021 - In 2021 we conducted human rights assessments on Eswatini, in the hinterland of Mozambique, where Galp carries out fuel distribution activities through one of its subsidiaries.

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security Arrangements
  • Community Impacts

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

2021 - In 2021 we conducted human rights assessments on Namibia, where Galp is currently  involved in early upstream exploration phases with limited or no physical presence at all through unincorporated Joint-Ventures with other partners.

The type of issues identified in the assessments were:

  • Organizational governance
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security Arrangements
  • Community Impacts

For each finding we identified:

  • Potential sources of Risk
  • Rights at Risk
  • Existing Mitigation
  • Additional Management Measures

Spread Human Rights awareness in our ecosystem

As stated in our Human Rights Policy, Galp is committed to spreading Human Rights awareness in its ecosystem - employees, clients, suppliers, partners and other relevant stakeholders.

In 2022, we had a total of 1,206 hours of training in Human Rights topics to our employees across all geographies.