Mining and marketing giant Glencore last week took the unprecedented step of announcing the signing of a major human rights commitment with a top human rights body, in a bid to keep its activities beyond reproach and squeaky clean.

In its latest step of many recent steps to keep the company firmly on mining's high road, the London-, Hong Kong- and Johannesburg-listed company, headed by CEO Ivan Glasenberg, said it had secured membership of the Plenary of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights after a rigorous review process, which involved discussions with key governments and NGOs.

This news followed chairperson Tony Howard spelling out in Glencore's latest annual report the firm commitment of the board and top management to engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders, including its NGO critics.

The Voluntary Principles membership follows critical acceptance analyses and site visits by independent arbitrators that paved the way for Glencore’s acceptance as a member of International Council on Mining and Metals, which maximises the contribution of mining, minerals and metals to sustainable development.

In its latest media release, Glencore reaffirmed its commitment to the United Nations' (UN's) Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Glasenberg devoted considerable time during this month’s analyst and media conferences in which Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly took part, to employee safety, good governance and sustainable development and spoke of taking steps to migrate first-world safety practices to the challenging geographies in which the 181 000-employee company operates, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Bolivia and Kazakhstan.

Glencore was highly visible as the host of this month’s large Coalsafe conference in Johannesburg, where intensification of South Africa’s drive towards achieving zero harm in mining was pledged.

It also won important recent recognition from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an international organisation that assesses the levels of transparency of countries with mineral resources.

Significantly for South Africa, Glencore made its human rights announcement on the eve of this country's March 21 Human Rights Day.