Business and Human Rights

Human rights are fundamental to business because they ensure ethical practices, social responsibility, and sustainable development.

Here are some key reasons why human rights matter to businesses:

Reputation and Trust:

Respecting human rights helps build a positive reputation and  trust among the stakeholders.

Businesses that prioritize human rights are seen as responsible and trustworthy entities.

Legal Compliance:

Many countries have human rights laws and regulations for businesses in place to protect human rights. Businesses must adhere to these laws to avoid legal penalties, fines, or negative publicity that can harm their operations and bottom line.

Risk Mitigation:

Ignoring human rights can lead to various risks such as legal disputes, worker strikes, protests, boycotts, supply chain disruptions, or damage to brand value. By proactively addressing human rights issues, businesses can minimise potential risks and protect their interests.

Human Rights Impact Assessment or HRIA helps organisations take informed decisions.

Employee Engagement and Productivity:

Respecting human rights within the workplace promotes a positive work environment, boosts employee morale, and enhances productivity. Employees who feel their rights are respected are more likely to be engaged, loyal, and motivated.

Sustainable Supply Chains:

Businesses have a responsibility to ensure that their supply chains operate ethically and respect human rights. By conducting due diligence and working with suppliers who uphold human rights standards, businesses contribute to sustainable and responsible sourcing practices.

Contributing to Social Development:

Businesses have the potential to positively impact communities  respecting human rights. By promoting fair labor practices, gender equality, diversity, and inclusion, businesses can contribute to social development and economic growth.

Thus, human rights are essential to business because they foster trust, ensure legal compliance, mitigate risks, enhance employee engagement, enable sustainable supply chains, drive innovation, and contribute to social development. By incorporating human rights into their core values and operations, businesses can create a positive impact on society while securing their long-term success.

Consultivo, being one of the practicing business and human rights consultants, offer full range of human rights due diligence solutions for Compliance, Investment, Merger and Acquisition.

Human Rights Impact Assessment – HRIA is a tool that helps organisations understand the potential positive and negative human rights implications of their activities.  

Human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) in business provide several benefits, including:

Risk Identification: HRIAs help businesses identify potential human rights risks and subsequent impacts associated with their operations, products, and supply chains. This enables proactive risk management and prevents potential harm to individuals and communities.

Compliance with Legal Frameworks: HRIAs assist businesses in aligning their operations with relevant national and international human rights laws and standards. This ensures compliance and minimizes the risk of legal and reputational consequences.

Stakeholder Engagement: HRIAs involve engaging with stakeholders, including affected communities, civil society organizations, and human rights experts. This participatory approach fosters dialogue, builds trust, and enhances relationships with stakeholders, leading to better-informed decision-making and more effective mitigation measures.

Reputation and Brand Enhancement: Demonstrating a commitment to human rights through HRIAs can enhance a company’s reputation and strengthen its brand. It showcases responsible business practices, promotes transparency, and attracts socially conscious consumers and investors.

Improved Risk Mitigation: HRIAs provide insights into potential human rights impacts, allowing businesses to develop effective mitigation strategies. By implementing appropriate measures, companies can minimize adverse impacts, prevent human rights abuses, and improve the well-being of affected individuals and communities.

Operational Efficiency: Addressing human rights impacts early in the business planning process can help identify inefficiencies, optimize resource allocation, and reduce costs associated with rectifying issues at later stages. This promotes long-term operational efficiency and sustainability.

Long-Term Business Resilience: By understanding and addressing human rights impacts, businesses can strengthen their resilience against social, environmental, and regulatory challenges. Taking proactive measures to respect human rights contributes to the long-term stability and sustainability of business operations.

Enhanced Decision-Making: HRIAs provide valuable information and insights into the potential social, environmental, and human rights consequences of business activities. This informs decision-making processes, enables ethical considerations, and contributes to more responsible and informed business practices.

Overall, conducting human rights impact assessments in business promotes responsible and sustainable operations, helps mitigate risks, and contributes to positive social and environmental outcomes, benefiting both the business and the broader society.

As per UN Global Compact, the two basic principles of Human rights are:

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Major elements of Human Rights include:

Employment, Labor/Management Relations, Occupational Health and Safety [Generally treated separately], Training and Education, Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Non-discrimination, Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining, Child Labor, Forced or Compulsory Labor, Security Practices (related to human rights), Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Consultivo, being one of the practicing business and human rights consultants, offer full range of human rights due diligence solutions for Compliance, Investment, Merger and Acquisition.

Business and Human Rights Due Diligence

Business human rights due diligence is an ongoing risk management process whereby businesses systematically identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for their impact on human rights. It involves assessing risks, taking appropriate measures and monitoring the effectiveness of those measures to ensure respect for human rights.

Human rights due diligence process:

It includes four key steps: identifying and assessing actual and potential human rights impacts; integrating and acting on the findings; tracking responses, and communicating about how impacts are addressed.

Under the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights for Business, companies have a responsibility to undertake human rights due diligence.

Consultivo, being one of the practicing business and human rights consultants, offer full range of human rights due diligence solutions for Compliance, Investment, Merger and Acquisition.

Find more on Human Rights Duediligence at ILO Site.

As one of the practicing HR consultants, Consultivo offers comprehensive People Management, Human Rights as well as Organisational Development solutions to companies in meeting the growing risk management requirements.

Being a Business and Human Rights Consultant, we work with organisations of all sizes and sectors to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how it addresses its adverse human rights impacts.

Consultivo supports companies globally on several research & survey related solutions like Employee Engagement Survey, Safety Perception Survey, Employee Survey, Engagement Survey, Culture Survey, Employee Satisfaction Survey, Employee Well Being Survey, Social Survey, Stakeholder Survey and many more.