Kamini Visvananthan, human rights and social standards manager for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), has moved on from the palm oil certifier after almost five years.
Visvananthan takes on a new role as a human rights and social standards consultant, with Kuala Lumpur-based InsAight Consultancy. She will be working with companies in the commodities sector on their human rights policies.
Visvananthan was RSPO’s first human rights and social standards manager, and was involved in drafting RSPO’s human rights standards and policies in its 2018 principles and criteria framework, and helped RSPO members work towards compliance with the certifier’s sustainability standards.
Among her key contributions during her time with RSPO was the development of policies and guidelines to protect child rights and human rights defenders, promote gender equality in the palm oil sector, and develop materials for Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), rules for engaging local communities before developing land.
She moves on at a period of transition for RSPO, which has seen a number of key staff departures in recent weeks, including the organisation’s CEO.
With a background as a litigation lawyer, Visvananthan joined RSPO in 2016 from law firm Bodipalar Ponnudurai De Silva, where she spent six years, latterly as senior legal associate. She has also had stints at Izral Partnership and Zain & Co.
