TotalEnergies fails on Human Rights in Mozambique LNG Project

With clear signs that TotalEnergies is considering restarting the development of its LNG project in the conflict-ridden province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, Justiça Ambiental! (Friends of the Earth Mozambique), Friends of the Earth Europe, and partners contracted Uprights to asses the human rights due diligence (HRDD) of this project.

In its report, Uprights demonstrates that TotalEnergies failed to address the human rights impact of its operations and, as a result, the rights of local communities were violated. The report demonstrates that the HRDD Assessment carried out for TotalEnergies was incomplete and contained flaws that have not been adequately addressed. The Uprights report shows a significant disconnect between the LNG project’s public commitment to respect human rights, and the actual implementation. In particular, the HRDD Assessment failed to account for the armed conflict in general, and the role of women in the conflict, in particular. The report raises concerns about how large companies conduct due diligence of their human rights impact and how they communicate about it.

Citizens received inadequate or long-overtime compensation while others who were involuntarily displaced lost their livelihoods. TotalEnergies’ HRDD policies and practices were not suited to address human rights impacts in relation to the security of the communities. When insurgents clashed with Mozambican security forces and attacked civilians near TotalEnergies’ LNG site, victims were refused refuge at the well protected site.

The report also identifies other problems within the HRDD process: the belated timing of the HRDD assessment, inadequate stakeholder engagement lacking transparency and failing to consult key people, and failure to assess how resettlement impact people’s human rights.