SRSG Consultation >> Statement of policy

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Statement of policy

Updated 26 April 2010: The Special Representative has been collecting views and feedback; here he aims to test some of the propositions that are emerging.

In order to meet their responsibility to respect human rights, companies should clearly set and communicate their responsibilities, expectations, and commitments. Broad aspirational language may be used to describe respect for human rights, but more detailed guidance in specific functional areas is necessary to give those commitments meaning. This is often done through a statement of policy, but the format and label may differ from company to company.

Questions for discussion:

Are the following propositions reasonable? What is missing?
In your experience, what is most challenging about developing a corporate statement of policy on human rights?
What are examples and features of a good corporate statement of policy on human rights, in terms of content, form (e.g. statement of values, code of conduct, etc.), or implementation (e.g. how is it rolled out to all employees, how is implementation tracked - and how is that communicated in the policy)?

Propositions:

Companies should have a public statement of policy or analogous affirmation of their responsibility to respect human rights approved by the board or equivalent.
Statements of human rights policy should be made available to all employees in all relevant languages, and incorporated into relevant management and employee training.
Companies could have stand-alone statements of policy on human rights, or they may be incorporated into other policies or similar statements. For both, it is useful to indicate what systems or departments are accountable for the policy’s implementation, if applicable -- a small or medium-sized enterprise might not have such formal structures.
Depending on the size and structure of its business, a company might choose to have a single high-level policy for the whole of the enterprise, with more detailed policies for particular businesses, functions, or regions.

Next element: Assessing impacts

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Discussion

posted by: Markh on Monday January 18, 2010

Ratings Relevance: 2

Agreement: 2

Re: In your experience, what is most challenging about developing a corporate statement of policy on human rights?

Three things come to mind. First, understanding that many existing policies covering various functions have a human rights component or relevance.But once this is done, the second is how to assess the quality of what the commitment vis-à-vis international human rights norms. This is why the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights created the Essential Steps. These are the result of BLIHR companies and human rights experts translating the international bill of rights and ILO core conventions into practical and clear language for business to review their own commitments against. See http://www.humanrights-matrix.net/assets/ES%20final.pdf or www.humanrights-matrix.net. Before all of this, the benefits and business case for action and drawing out a human rights statement is still a very tough conversation.

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posted by: Elizabeth on Saturday February 6, 2010

Ratings Relevance: 2

Agreement: 2

I think it's useful for a company to have some sort of company-wide 'policy statement' (or value or commitment or code of conduct or similar) on respecting the rights of those with whom they interact. Why? Because it means that employees are clear on what is expected of them. You can use the high-level statement as a 'hook' on which to hang several things:

a) external commitments (eg VPs, Global Compact etc) that will help your company to deliver its policy and also enable you to demonstrate to the outside world that you are doing so (eg through reports to the VPs plenary, properly verified sustainability reports; reports of independent advisory panels;

b) more detailed internal processes requirements that your businesses must follow (eg on community engagement, impact assessment, interactions with indigenous peoples, procedures to follow if you implement involuntary resettlement, use or and emissions to fresh water etc etc);

c) requirements on your contractors.

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posted by: marcusC on Tuesday March 30, 2010

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Agreement: 2

Stakeholder engagement, external accountability, and transparency are key elements in creating a human rights policy. A human rights policy should be publicly available and provide a mechanism to receive and investigate complaints by shareholders, impacted communities, workers, etc. in cases where national/local management is perceived as not complying with the policy, local complainants should be able to bring the facts to a central global body. A global framework agreement with a global union is one example of a policy that is negotiated with the impacted population (workers) and should provide a clear dispute resolution mechanism.

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