Shaeron (Shae) - our Senior Manager of Human Rights

From law to lasting change

Human rights live in the choices we make, not just on paper

Last updated: 9 May 2025

Shaeron (Shae) is our Senior Manager of Human Rights. Her career has taken her across continents and sectors, from corporate law to advocacy to mining. Since joining in 2022, Shae and her team are working to embed human rights at the heart of our business – turning policy into action and creating a lasting impact for people and communities around the world.

"If you’d asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I don’t think I could’ve answered. My childhood spanned across multiple continents and 8 schools – constantly adapting, learning new cultures, languages and ways of seeing the world. That upbringing gave me an innate curiosity about people and a deep sense of fairness, long before I even knew what human rights were.

While my first official job was a piano teacher, when it came time to choose a career, I didn’t set out to be a business and human rights practitioner – in fact, that wasn’t even a job title I’d ever heard of in a business before! I chose law, because I wanted to understand justice. My early career took me into corporate law, project finance and insolvency, working in Australia and the United Kingdom for major firms, and later as a commercial in-house lawyer. In each of those roles I was always drawn back to this question – could and should business do more to consider their impact on people?

At the same time, I was following with interest the growing momentum globally with the introduction of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the growing rise of ESG.  

In 2016, a simple email at a broadcaster I was working for changed the next stage of my career. What was to be a quick modern slavery compliance task (“can you write a modern slavery statement for us”) became a full working group I led, diving deep into the issue and connecting with people fighting to end modern slavery in the UK and globally. It reignited a long-held passion – one I knew I wanted to keep following. 

When I returned home to Australia, I made the conscious decision to leave the security of corporate law behind and join the Walk Free Foundation, advocating for a Modern Slavery Act in Australia. I worked with a phenomenal team to write the case for modern slavery laws in Australia, learnt how to lobby government and business, and helped build forums for collaboration across the Indo–Pacific through the Bali Process. It was meaningful, groundbreaking work and taught me the power of collaboration to create social change – between businesses, governments and with civil society.

The opportunity then came up to work as a human rights advisor and implementing human rights principles in practice. That’s what brought me to the mining sector, and most recently, Rio Tinto 3 years ago.

Shae holding a mic and speaking in front of audience

What are human rights?

Human rights are fundamental rights that all individuals have as human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, sexuality or any other status. They include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. 

Shae presenting on a panel of young professionals in Perth, Western Australia, who are making a difference in areas like Modern Day Slavery and the not-for-profit sector. 

With the appointment of a new Global Head of Communities and Social Performance (CSP), the human rights team was brought into the CSP Area of Expertise. This created a real opportunity to bring human rights closer to the day-to-day decisions affecting people’s lives and the heart of our business. Our talented team is building and maturing our human rights program across Rio Tinto. 

Rio Tinto’s global Human Rights team. L-R: Simon, Shae, Bruno, Rachel, Kylie and Chris.
Rio Tinto’s global Human Rights team. L-R: Simon, Shae, Bruno, Rachel, Kylie and Chris.
One of the biggest surprises for me is how sometimes the most unexpected experiences have proven invaluable as a human rights practitioner – and why there’s no one natural career path into this role! For example, the teaching skills during my early days as a piano teacher, the ability to negotiate commercial clauses and how to build consensus through collaboration – are all things that make me a better human rights practitioner.  

Teaching in particular has become a theme of my role. When I joined Rio Tinto, we spent the better part of 2 years travelling, meeting teams and running human rights training programs. People were hungry to learn more about human rights, but felt the topic was very academic or even legalistic. They wanted to understand how this topic shows up in their work and how they can make a difference in their roles – whether they are an engineer, a finance clerk, a procurement professional or communities superintendent.
Site visit to Rio Tinto’s Canga Camp, Guinea, in 2022.
Site visit to Rio Tinto’s Canga Camp, Guinea, in 2022.
We recently designed a human rights learning program that’s anything but a box-ticking exercise – Human Rights in Action. Initially rolled out to 2,000 leaders in our business, it’s a program built on storytelling, because human rights is, and should be, personal – it belongs to each of us. We use real scenarios, not just legal definitions. And we focus on empowering people with practical tools: simple questions to ask, ways to spot issues, and the confidence to raise concerns.
One of the things I’m most proud of is helping to form the Human Rights Resources and Energy Collaborative (we call ourselves “HRREC”). This is a practitioner-led forum for people of all roles – whether you are a lawyer, procurement advisor, sustainability or human rights manager – to share knowledge on human rights and identify practical solutions to scale change in our industries. From a small group of us in 2019, we now have over 30 member companies and I’m so proud to see the new co-chairs leading HRREC wonderfully.

What excites me most is that this isn’t about making any one business look good on paper. It’s about actually doing good in practice, together. We’ve seen firsthand how small actions can have a huge impact. For example, we’ve seen accountants and finance clerks creating positive human rights impacts by putting people before process. The simple act of reducing payment terms for invoices may mean a small business can always pay their workers on time, which in turn means families have a regular wage and can send their children to school. That human story – what we call “applying a human rights lens” to the way we do business - is what we try to connect every role in the business back to, no matter what their role.

My hope is for people not to see human rights as a topic only for those who have a passion or interest in social justice or a niche career path. I’d love to see respect for human rights becoming second nature – considered as part of every role, every decision, every conversation – even if you never say the words “human rights”. Because human rights is ultimately about making sure everyone – particularly people who may be out of sight, overlooked or misunderstood - are treated with dignity and respect. I hope this inspires everyone to know that you can also be a human rights advocate and leader – no matter what role you do, and wherever your career takes you."