Human rights policy commitments – is it possible to develop a ‘bad’ statement?

Anna Triponel | 3 February 2020

Yes, it is. While we often say that respecting human rights is a journey, and that each company will have its own unique path depending on its human rights risk profile, it is possible for a company to develop a ‘bad’ human rights policy commitment.

I’ve worked on too many policy commitments to count. But more importantly, I’ve worked with companies on the embedding of their rights-respecting culture – after or in parallel to the development of their policy commitments. There are some distinct features of ‘bad’, and ‘good’, human rights policy commitments. A ‘bad’ policy commitment is ineffective or, worse, sets a company back; while a ‘good’ policy commitment propels a business to developing or consolidating a strong culture based on respect and dignity for employees and others connected to its business. (If you’re short on time, you can scroll directly to the nine tips for effective human rights policy commitments here.)

First, what is a human rights policy commitment, and why would a company develop one?

This commitment sets the foundation for a company’s rights-respecting culture. It demonstrates that the highest levels of the company wish to drive respect for human rights into the core values and culture of the business. Just as a company may have a health and safety policy, or a commitment to conduct business ethically, it would have a policy commitment to respect human rights. While some companies had them before the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights of 2011 (the UNGPs), they really took off following this time since the UNGPs ask every company to develop one.

The form doesn’t actually matter — this commitment to human rights respect could be included in a Code of Conduct; integrated into a company’s responsible business, health and safety, or other type of policy commitment; or stand as a separate statement. The choice will depend on what the company already has in place and what’s viewed as the most appropriate to drive this the most effectively. What does matter is its contents and how it was developed.

How can a human rights policy commitment be bad, and why?

Here goes:

Let me explain why:

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Let’s flip this – what should I be looking for in a ‘good’ human rights policy?

Most companies note in their policies that they seek to follow the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in their human rights work. A company can also include other information, such as further specificity on the categories of stakeholders the company can impact upon through it value chain (e.g. with regard to its supply chain workers, communities and indigenous communities, and customers), information on how it seeks to build and exercise leverage to tackle systemic issues and/or reflections on how it will track its progress.

We are also seeing a number of other developments in the ‘human rights policy commitment field’, including a growing number of companies:

• linking their human rights commitment with their environment and climate-related commitments
• committing to defend human rights defenders who are affected by their business activities and
• making clear when they intend to go beyond respect and how their commitment links to the UN SDGs

To conclude, take a look at your company’s human rights policy statement and ask yourself: what does this statement tell me about my company’s understanding of human rights?

An increasing number of external stakeholders (investors, business partners, civil society, consumers) can tell the difference between a perfect policy, and one that is lived up to in practice. At the end of the day, this is about creating a culture where – when push comes to shove – people come first. So, where do you land? Are you reading a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ policy?

A few definitions

‘Internationally recognised human rights‘ are defined in the UNGPs as those expressed in:

• the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the main instruments through which it has been codified: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and
• the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

The UNGPs also make clear that “[d]epending on circumstances, business enterprises may need to consider additional standards. For instance, enterprises should respect the human rights of individuals belonging to specific groups or populations that require particular attention, where they may have adverse human rights impacts on them. In this connection, United Nations instruments have elaborated further on the rights of indigenous peoples; women; national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities; children; persons with disabilities; and migrant workers and their families. Moreover, in situations of armed conflict enterprises should respect the standards of international humanitarian law.”

‘Salient human rights issues‘ are those human rights at risk of the most severe negative impact through the company’s activities and business relationships. These are the rights that companies are expected to prioritise for action under soft law (and increasingly hard law). There is a specified methodology for identifying a company’s list of salient issues which is further described in the UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework.

A commitment to ‘respect human rights‘ means that the company commits to:

• avoiding infringing on the human rights of others and to address adverse human rights impacts with which it is involved
• taking different actions, depending on how it is connected to the impact. The company commits to (1) avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through its own activities, and address such impacts when they occur and (2) seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships, even if it has not contributed to those impacts
• putting policies and processes in place to enable it to meet this commitment. In addition to the policy commitment and measures to embed this policy throughout the business, this includes putting in place (1) a human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how the company addresses its impacts on human rights (which includes building and exercising leverage to mitigate impacts) and (2) processes to enable the remediation of adverse human rights impacts the company causes or to which it contributes
• conducting stakeholder engagement with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders to inform its human rights due diligence

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