Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) Sumbawa, Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE), and 65 Indigenous Peoples and civil society organizations and 26 individuals from across the world in a joint letter to the Copper Mark have strongly condemned its recent decision to upgrade the compliance status of PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (AMNT) to “fully meet” all its 32 applicable criteria, including on human rights, Indigenous Peoples rights, cultural heritage, and stakeholder engagement.

As stated in the letter, the upgrading of the compliance status of PT AMNT reveals a profound contradiction within the Copper Mark’s assurance process. The status was upgraded while the Copper Mark is undertaking its process into a formal grievance filed by the Indigenous Cek Bocek/Selesek Reen Sury communities (recognized as Berco Tribe) against PT AMNT in August for severe violations of the criteria of the leading assurance framework for the copper value chain.

​The grievance details the company’s systematic failure to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, encroachment upon their customary lands and cultural sites, and disregard for their right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Accordingly, the communities have demanded immediate suspension of PT AMNT’s Copper Mark certification and a full and independent investigation into the grievance.

​Earlier, the Copper Mark had concluded that PT AMNT “partially meets” its criteria, notably on human rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, cultural heritage, and stakeholder engagement. However, the report of the follow-up assessment completed in September—which is the basis for upgrading PT AMNT’s status to “fully meet all applicable criteria”—demonstrates that The Copper Mark accepted the company’s procedural compliance as a substantive resolution.

​The assessment of the Copper Mark and the subsequent upgrading of PT AMNT’s status have effectively legitimized conflict avoidance. For example, PT AMNT was initially rated as partially meeting the criterion on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights not due to the unresolved conflict with the affected Indigenous communities itself, but because PT AMNT lacked a “clear implementation” of its standards for engaging “communities with self-determined claims”.

​To remedy this gap and achieve a “fully meets” rating, AMNT was not required to resolve the land rights dispute. Instead, AMNT merely “developed a new procedure” and submitted evidence categorized as “Studies of cultural aspects, Cek Bocek indigenous claimants”. This is evident of a process that prioritizes superficial formality over substantive resolution. The assessment has provided a shallow validation to AMNT for “studying” the community with which it is in conflict, rather than for resolving that conflict. The Cek Bocek Indigenous Peoples have accordingly been reduced from rights-holders to passive “claimants”, who are objects of corporate study and risk management.

​A similar flaw is evident in the criterion on Stakeholder Engagement, under which PT AMNT achieved a “fully meets” rating also based on procedural fixes such as “purpose-made database software” and new standard operating procedures. This ignores the clearest evidence of the system’s failure – the Indigenous Cek Bocek communities’ choice to bypass the company’s internal mechanism and file their grievance directly with The Copper Mark is the highest vote of no-confidence, proving the mechanism ineffective for the most critically impacted stakeholders.

​The organizations and individuals endorsing the letter claim that the status upgrade exposes a deep systemic contradiction in the Copper Mark’s grievance redress process. A certification body cannot credibly award a “Fully Meets” rating to a participant while its own Grievance Mechanism is simultaneously investigating serious human rights allegations against the same company. This duality severely undermines the entire credibility of the assurance process.

Therefore, they reiterate following demands to the Copper Mark: ​

• Immediately suspend the Copper Mark certification of PT AMNT pending the outcome of the ongoing formal grievance process.
• Declare the follow-up assessment completed in September as invalid and immediately undertake an independent and substantive assessment focused on the rights of the affected Indigenous Cek Bocek communities.
• Expedite the process in the grievance filed by the Indigenous Cek Bocek communities to the Copper Mark Grievance Mechanism for effective resolution of their concerns.

They also urge the companies buying copper from PT AMNT, particularly those based in Europe, to immediately conduct in-depth human rights due diligence and ensure accountability for their supply chains with PT AMNT. Those companies reportedly include Glencore International AG (Switzerland), Anglo American Marketing Ltd and Alfred H Knight International Ltd (UK), Hartree Metals Sárl (Switzerland), and Bachelet Laboratories (Belgium).

In September, PT AMNT reportedly received the Business and Human Rights Risk Assessment System (PRISMA) Award – a government-designed instrument encouraging businesses to align with international frameworks while strengthening national investment competitiveness – from the Indonesian Ministry of Human Rights. In line with the subsequent concerns raised by AMAN Sumbawa, including at a formal audience with the Ministry in November, the letter challenges the validity of the award granted to the PT AMNT while the company is embroiled in a land dispute with the affected Indigenous communities.

As stated in the letter, in a meeting with AMAN Sumbawa witnessed by a PT AMNT representative, the Ministry acknowledged the limitations of the current PRISMA methodology, particularly regarding its reliance on corporate self-assessment, and committed to reforming the policy to strengthen public participation. While the Ministry declined to immediately revoke the award citing procedural constraints, this official commitment to policy improvement confirms that the current assessment framework is insufficient to fully capture the reality of human rights impacts on the ground. The Copper Mark should not credibly rely on national awards like PRISMA as evidence to justify its decision to upgrade the status of PT AMNT to “fully meet” its criteria. Continued validation of PT AMNT’s performance by the Copper Mark in light of these facts would amount to complicity in “greenwashing”.

As the global community gathered in Geneva last month for the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, the case of PT AMNT and the Copper Mark presents as a stark warning. This case exemplifies how voluntary certification schemes and procedural national assessments can be weaponized to obscure actual human rights harms, directly contradicting the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

​Following up on the information submitted by the Indigenous Cek Bocek communities to the UN Working Group and other Special Procedures in August, the organizations and individuals endorsing the letter recall the request of the communities to the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and other Special Procedures to urgently communicate with the Indonesian government, PT AMNT, and the Copper Mark regarding these grievances and the failure of national validation mechanisms.

Download the full letter here.