Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

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FPIC is a fundamental human right and a critical mechanism for businesses to respect indigenous rights. ISEAL actively supports its members to strengthen FPIC implementation through collaborative learning. 

The right to free, prior and informed consent, commonly referred to as FPIC, is recognised as an essential safeguard to preserve the rights of indigenous people by the United Nations. It is also seen as an integral process through which companies can engage with indigenous peoples, and other resource-dependent communities, to preserve their rights and mitigate the adverse effects that business practices and actions could have on communities’ rights. However, despite widespread recognition of its significance, FPIC is challenging to ‘get right’ in practice.

ISEAL  supports members to advance their thinking and action to operationalize adherence to FPIC principles. ISEAL has also compiled a collection of resources about Free, Prior and Informed Consent, including ISEAL resources as well as outputs from ISEAL Innovations Fund-supported projects. In one of such projects, Equitable Origin and its project partners worked to codify FPIC in Voluntary Standards Systems. In addition to building a tool (FPIC-360°) to codify FPIC and build the capacity of indigenous communities, the project developed guidance materials to encourage uptake by financial institutions and sustainability systems. ISEAL’s guidance on the topic of FPIC includes examples on how sustainability systems can use the FPIC-360° tool in line with the recommendations outlined in the study ‘Voluntary Standards and FPIC Insights for Improving Implementation’ (ISEAL 2020). 

Sustainability systems are well-positioned to help companies navigate requirements related to FPIC by providing frameworks and tools that operationalize abstract FPIC principles into concrete practices. ISEAL members may, for example, recommend or require their members or certified entities to adopt FPIC policies. 

Sustainability systems can support FPIC implementation in a number of ways. A literature review of the enabling role of voluntary sustainability standards in the mining sector notably identified the following five functions:

  1. Enhancing legal compliance: Sustainability systems can help companies understand and fulfill legal requirements around FPIC, which is increasingly important as regulations like the EU Deforestation Regulation make compliance with FPIC-related laws a condition for market access.
  2. Supporting governance risk management: Sustainability systems can highlight ‘governance gaps’ and draw attention to risks in regions where such gaps exist, developing risk assessment approaches and providing higher threshold of standards and guidance.
  3. frameworks to identify and mitigate risks related to land rights and community relations.
  4. Building awareness and capacities: Sustainability systems can bring awareness to the status of indigenous rights and FPIC, create forums for dialogue, open a space for affected communities to engage with companies and other stakeholders, develop tools and training to help companies and communities engage in meaningful FPIC processes.
  5. Monitoring implementation: Sustainability systems can provide monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure adherence to FPIC. Through their verification mechanisms, systems can seek to ensure FPIC is genuinely implemented rather than merely documented—confirming consent is truly free from coercion, obtained prior to development, based on comprehensive information, and represents authentic community consensus.
  6. Stimulating wider sectoral and governance reform.: By setting norms and building accepting of these norms, systems can promote good practice and help normalise respect for indigenous rights beyond certified operations. They can support partnerships and dialogue around indigenous rights. 

Despite progress, challenges remain for sustainability standards to effectively enable FPIC processes and provide robust assurance, particularly around verifying meaningful community engagement, adapting requirements to diverse contexts, and ensuring remediation when FPIC principles are not upheld. ISEAL is actively working with members to strengthen their approaches to FPIC by facilitating peer learning, developing shared resources, and supporting innovations. This collaborative approach helps sustainability systems address common challenges in FPIC implementation while respecting the unique contexts of different sectors and regions.