Embedding human rights: Who leads?

The following is a guest post by David Vermijs, an advisor with Shift, a leading non-profit organization that helps governments, businesses and their stakeholders put the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into practice.

Recently the European Union adopted a new Directive that will require approximately 6,000 enterprises across Europe to report on how they are conducting due diligence on human rights and other corporate responsibility issues by 2016.

In the same week, the White House announced it is embarking on a process to engage U.S. companies in developing a National Action Plan, “consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

Amidst these growing expectations that companies improve their efforts to prevent and address their negative impacts on people, how can companies “live and breathe” human rights in all that they do?

To help companies answer this question, CSR Europe invited Shift to facilitate a workshop titled “Embedding Human Rights Into Key Company Functions,” which took place on Oct. 23 in Brussels. It featured professionals from leading companies in technology, transport, energy, finance, services and other sectors.

Company learning

I have worked with dozens of companies on their implementation of human rights over the past several years. A key question that I am often asked is which company function is best equipped to lead embedding of respect for human rights throughout the organization. Compliance? Human resources? Legal? Procurement? Sustainability?

The answer is, of course: it depends.

For instance, at Microsoft (host of the workshop) the Legal and Corporate Affairs department led the effort by implementing product-centered human rights impact assessments. At the workshop, Microsoft explained how they are committed to transparency on these issues, and provides information about how they carry out due diligence on the human rights to freedom of expression and privacy in reports, including Law Enforcement Request Reports.

As Microsoft explained, the influence of Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs department and the personal dedication of the general counsel led the way for company-wide adoption. This allows Microsoft to focus on implementation rather than spending extensive time on making the internal business case.

Prior research and analysis from Shift, as well as the discussions coming out of our October workshop, highlighted further examples of impactful company functions.[1] The human resources and procurement functions often have networks of professionals in all layers of the company that play central roles in running business operations. This can be instrumental in driving top-down policies as well as bottom-up solutions for changing the situation on the ground, such as addressing root causes of child labor with suppliers and improving relationships with factory workers.

The sustainability or CSR functions in companies often play a critical role of their own. They can identify existing policies and procedures that are relevant to practicing respect for human rights and refocus or refine them. They are often the key driver for ensuring that risk to people, not just risk to the business, is considered in core operating procedures.

Tips for success

 All relevant functions need to play their part to make the company live and breathe human rights. Which role is best suited to lead is likely very different from one company to another.

The workshop highlighted a number of critical success factors for effectively embedding human rights across most companies, including:

  • Choose a function (or functions) to lead that has internal and external clout as well as a network of professionals in all layers of the company;
  • Build on existing mechanisms wherever possible rather than try to reinvent the wheel; and
  • Include human rights in goal setting, decision making and individual and group performance evaluations.

Overarching all of these factors is the critical role of a top management sponsor. Finding a strong champion in top management is often the single most significant driver for effectively embedding respect for human rights.

Ultimately, what matters most is not just what looks good on paper, but also who is most dedicated in practice.

Prof. John Ruggie, Shift’s Chair and author of the Guiding Principles, and Caroline Rees, Shift’s President, contributed previous blog posts.

[1] Apart from Microsoft’s presentation, the research and workshop were conducted under the Chatham House Rule.

Tags: ,