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TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Dinant has been awarded full membership of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) – the highly-esteemed international initiative that governs how organizations vet, recruit, and train security men and women, and how they engage peacefully and transparently with local communities.
The vote in Dinant’s favor was taken by a high level group of NGOs, private corporations and governmental bodies engaged in a dialogue on security and human rights.
Dinant is the first Honduran company to join the VPSHR, and the first agribusiness in the world to be awarded full membership.
Roger Pineda Pinel, Dinant’s Director of Corporate Relations and Sustainability, commented, “This is a very important day for Dinant, our staff, and our business partners, and an historic one for Honduras. After many years of making huge strides in modernizing our security and improving how we engage with local communities, we are honored to be admitted as a full member of this prestigious organization.”
Dinant has made continuous and impressive progress since 2013, when it took the strategic decision to begin benchmarking its operations against the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, even though companies outside the extractive industries were ineligible to join at that time.
In 2013, Dinant even went beyond the VPSHR requirements by prohibiting all security guards from carrying firearms at its plantations, palm oil extraction mills and manufacturing plants.
In 2015, Dinant launched a series of regional community grievance mechanisms, operated by the company’s professional community liaison staff, that continue to provide members of local communities with simple, safe and reliable ways of communicating with the company.
Roger Pineda continued, “Today’s announcement is the result of a team effort by many people, past and present, who embraced the Voluntary Principles program and delivered this success. I have every confidence that we shall use Dinant’s membership to continue improving our operations and to share with other members our experience of operating peacefully, transparently, and successfully in challenging regions of Honduras. Of course, we know that we must always aim for continuous improvement, but today all of Dinant’s staff is proud of how far we’ve come.”
Dinant’s products are sold across Central America and the Dominican Republic. Its operations directly employ 7,800 people – who in turn support approximately 24,000 family members – as well as many thousands of contractors, vendors, and suppliers.
This material is distributed by Tricuro LLC on behalf of Corporacion Dinant. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
- All Dinant Security Guards are vetted, recruited, and regularly trained on the Voluntary Principles.
