US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA3373

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 003373 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EINV, EPET, PHUM, PREL, CO 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES PROCESS IN 
COLOMBIA: DRAFT WORK PLAN UNDER DEVELOPMENT 
 
REF: 03 BOGOTA 9054 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
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Summary 
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1. (SBU) British Petroleum (BP) and the Colombian Association 
of Petroleum Producers (ACP) hosted a briefing for British 
and U.S. emboffs on ACP's draft work plan regarding the 
Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) for 
the extractive industry.  ACP and BP requested USG and UK 
assistance encouraging relevant GOC agencies to participate 
in the implementation of the plan.  Specifically, they are 
interested in securing GOC cooperation to vet 
privately-contracted security teams and public security 
forces contracted via Ecopetrol by the extractive companies. 
ACP's work plan anticipates an industry-wide workshop in 
April aimed at developing a baseline consensus among 
producers as well as a series of regional workshops with 
local law enforcement and military to bring the GOC onboard. 
Emboffs expressed concern that the work plan seemed to come 
up short on civil society involvement and encouraged ACP to 
consider efforts to solicit input from labor organizations 
and NGOs before final agreement on an industry-wide baseline 
position.  End Summary. 
 
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Context 
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2. (U) Since the initial VP meeting hosted by the U.S. 
Embassy in September 2003 (reftel), ACP held a series of 
one-day workshops in November 2003 with its members to 
develop a draft work plan on VPs.  The draft work plan 
integrates topics such as corporate responsibility, 
transparency of revenue distribution, risk assessment, best 
practices, ethical principles, human rights and social 
management in hopes of developing a consensus on minimum 
baseline standards that would govern the business practices 
of ACP members.  The workshops consisted of presentations 
from companies that currently support VP, including BP, 
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and ChevronTexaco; discussion of 
the U.N. Global Compact; and consideration of an OXY case 
study on pending lawsuits alleging OXY's involvement in the 
1998 Santo Domingo massacre (septel). 
 
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Draft Work Plan: Civil Society Participation Later 
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3. (SBU) Based on the September meeting and the November 
workshops, ACP and BP have designed a draft work plan that 
focuses on using best practices and development of an 
intra-industry information sharing network that would 
facilitate risk assessment procedures.  ACP plans to host a 
two-day workshop in April to present the draft work plan and 
to formulate a set of baseline standards for implementation 
of VPs.  Begining in April, ACP also intends to host a series 
of eleven regional workshops with local law enforcement and 
public security forces to develop an infrastructure for 
cooperation.  In response to emboffs' concerns that the draft 
work plan did not seem to integrate input from civil society 
-- primarily labor organizations and human rights NGOs -- ACP 
and BP noted that the high degree of mistrust between the 
private sector and civil society precluded the inclusion of 
civil society representatives in initial discussions.  Noting 
our concern that NGOs and organized labor might be 
disinclined to participate as a result of being excluded from 
the formulation process, ACP and BP insisted they will reach 
out to NGOs and organized labor only after ACP's membership 
has agreed on a set of baseline standards.  BP noted that 
they would enlist the support of U.K.- and U.S.-based human 
rights organizations in reaching out to Colombian organized 
labor and NGOs. 
 
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GOC Assistance Needed 
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4. (SBU) ACP and BP stated that industries can accomplish 80 
percent of work plan implementation alone.  The remaining 20 
percent will require GOC assistance in order to obtain 
necessary information to conduct environmental, security and 
other risk assessment studies and to vet privately-contracted 
security companies and public security forces contracted by 
Ecopetrol, which traditionally receives logistical or 
financial support from extractive producers.  ACP and BP 
noted that they plan to request U.K. and U.S. Embassy 
assistance in communicating the importance of these 
activities and the need for GOC cooperation. 
 
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Looking Ahead 
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5. (SBU) Despite the exclusion of civil society participants, 
formulation of the draft work plan represents an important 
step forward.  Post will continue to monitor the VP 
implementation process at each stage and will continue to 
stress the importance of involving civil society actors early 
in the process.  The Uribe administration has expressed 
strong support for implementation of VPs.  As a result, 
obtaining GOC cooperation in risk assessment and review 
procedures is not a matter of GOC resistance or lack of 
political will.  It is, rather, a question of overcoming 
legal and technical restrictions on information sharing that 
might be as simple as the development of a 
red-light/green-light system designed to safeguard protected 
or sensitive information. 
WOOD