January 20, 2021
Photo © CorporatEngagement
By Marie-Gabrielle Cajoly – CorporatEngagement SàRL
Trying to do without it, you will quickly understand how much you miss it so that your economic project is taken seriously – and you too.
All over the world, states are responding to growing pressure from companies to respect human rights. Private initiatives are multiplying to assess the performance of companies in this area. The umbrella organizations develop sectoral programs. Banks, insurance companies and financial players are increasingly making it a sine qua non for financing. Developing a Human Rights Policy has become a fundamental element of good governance.
The reality is not new. The question is simply posed with unprecedented acuity and in new terms as the immense potential for change towards more sustainable and responsible production models is brought to light. The formal commitment of companies to respect human rights is part of this change.
What is a production model that respects human rights?
It is a process by which a company produces its goods or services in a way that creates economic but also social value. In other words, it is about producing profits for the company as for the society. This begins by ensuring that the company’s activities – from A to Z of its value chain – do not in any way infringe the fundamental rights and freedoms recognized to all human beings. These are at least those appearing in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of the International Labor Organization (in addition to the OECD Guidelines for multinational companies as well as the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Human Rights and its additional protocols).
What are the basic human rights that companies are required to respect?
Being respectful of human rights implies that a company considers the issues of free and safe working conditions, the principles of equality and diversity but also the prevention of corruption or the protection of the environment and the employee health at the center of its political and social concerns, in the conduct of its activities through all its commercial relationships. For example, a company is required to prevent any form of discrimination in hiring or harassment in its workplace. Likewise, the fight against any form of exploitation of children or of qualified vulnerable populations (indigenous peoples, minorities, women, migrants, or even people with disabilities) in supply chains has become
a central issue of corporate social responsibility. Another example, a company must do everything in its power to ensure that an employee or business partner, wherever he or she intervenes in the production chain, benefits from a healthy, fair and favorable working environment in the performance of their duties. functions.
What legal texts govern companies’ commitment to respect for human rights?
Here we must remember an essential feature: the responsibility of companies in terms of respect for human rights is decreed by international principles, independently of the capacity of a particular State to fulfill its obligations in this matter on its territory. For example, a company must guarantee freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining even in a country where unionism is little, or not, part of local culture and practices. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – developed under the leadership of John Ruggie and adopted in 2011 – thus forge the global normative framework that applies to all companies, in all countries, regardless of their size, sector, structure or ownership regime. These same UN Guiding Principles also state the duty of states to protect human rights, in particular through the legislative, regulatory and political framework applicable to companies under their jurisdiction.
For a business, how do you go about it?
Thinking in order to act well: it is at the same time a rule of common sense, a necessary step and a demanding but useful exercise to be effective. Developing and implementing a human rights policy in accordance with international texts and relevant for the company, requires asking all the important questions relating to its activities, in particular:
- What are the human rights risks to which the company is directly or indirectly exposed?
- What procedures are in place or necessary to minimize them?
- How effective are these measures?
This exercise of due diligence in terms of human rights is the real starting point for the implementation of a policy adapted to your company, in every respect credible and realistic in its implementation. However, adopting such a policy and demonstrating that it is communicated, understood and applied has become the essential passport for small and large companies alike to enter the circle of responsible and therefore reliable players.
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