Why companies should talk about human rights

From garments to fresh produce, human rights abuses can exist in the supply chains of everyday products. While many global companies have stated their commitment to human rights, the development of codes of conduct and sustainable procurements policies are no longer enough. A wide range of stakeholders, including consumers, regulators and investors, are increasingly demanding disclosure of corporate human rights performance.

The subject of human rights has long been the black sheep of the corporate social responsibility “family” of issues. Respecting and promoting human rights can be a challenge if companies do not have insight into their human rights practices, impacts and policies. And yet, these rights are important to the way companies work, the products and services customers choose to support, and the opportunities available to the public.

A driving force in corporate transparency has been the increased coverage of human rights abuses and risks in the media.

In March, the Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney stated that governments should be vocal, consistent, principled and transparent about human rights. Mrs Clooney was a headline speaker at the International Government Communication Forum. Arab countries faced “an unprecedented human rights crisis”, she said, and urged that criticism of ruling systems be met with dialogue, not prison terms, and that protests be met with “crowd control”, not bullets.

The recent climate change talks in Paris highlighted the links between climate change and human rights. World events have made it clear that diminishing water supplies, more extreme weather events and rights to health, life, food, sanitation, housing and even nationality are threatened by climate change. It was an appreciation of the rights of people that tipped the negotiations in Paris, to restrain an increase in temperature to 1.5°C.

Stories such as the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, in which more than 1,100 workers were killed, ignited an international dialogue about the role of companies in protecting human rights and led people to demand more corporate disclosure.

Also gaining traction is the framing of “digital privacy” as a human and civil rights issue. Chief executives are responding, including Apple’s Tim Cook, who during a White House Summit on cybersecurity declared digital privacy as a human right: “If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money. We risk our way of life.”

The bar for corporate behaviour in the human rights arena is higher than ever. It is important for companies to identify their “salient” or “material” human rights issues, develop policies and report on progress in a credible way by providing context, acknowledging challenges and actively engaging their stakeholders.

A company can organise the human rights function in a variety of ways, from a cross-functional working group to collectively addressing and managing human rights risks, or clearly allocating separate responsibilities across departments with respective areas of expertise. Some companies engage an external expert body for strategic advice. Needless to say, there is no single right answer or model.

The authoritative global standard for addressing human rights risks linked to business activity is the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, which outlines how companies can “protect, respect and remedy”. It acts as a toolkit and represents significant progress in clarifying states’ and companies’ responsibility to respect human rights.

Eliminating human rights risks entirely is not possible in the short term, but demonstrating that a company is aware of the risks and is working to address them is what many stakeholders are asking for.

The United Nations will be hosting the 2016 United Nations Asia Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights in Doha from April 19 to 20. This free forum will provide an opportunity to raise awareness and scale up implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and United Nations Guiding Principles Reporting Framework in the Mena and Asia.

Isobel O’Connell is a specialist in sustainability and social impact.

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