A human rights policy is the most common way to communicate the company’s commitment, statement, or/and communication on how to meet its responsibility to respect internationally recognized human rights standards. According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, it is the state's duty to protect human rights, and companies are responsible for respecting human rights. This means companies should avoid negatively impacting human rights in all their business activities and address adverse human rights impacts when they occur.
The policy is usually communicated internally within the company and externally to customers, suppliers, stakeholders such as investors/shareholders, service providers and civil society. One objective of having a human rights policy is that the whole company learn and understand why human rights are important and what kind of human rights issues and risks the company faces. Please note that there is no set format for what a human right policy should look like. Therefore, the policy can and should be specific to the company and relevant to its activities.
A successful policy should be
Realistic, achievable, and relevant to the company’s activities.
At most one or two sheets of A4.
Written in easily understandable language - Make complex issues into clear and understandable language when possible.
Publicly available and dated for transparency reasons.
Approved at the most senior level/top management, they should also be responsible for implementing the policy throughout the whole company, including ensuring everyone understands the requirements of and works along the policy.
Developed by engagement with human rights experts.
The organization's policy should include the following:
General information of the company's mission – Which provides the necessary background for the overall policy.
Policy commitment - An explicit commitment to respect all internationally recognized human rights standards (International Bill of Rights and the ILO's Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work).
Requirements - The company’s expectations on respect for human rights of the workforce, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Implementation processes - How the company implements and embeds the human rights policy within the company, business relationships, and stakeholders, e.g., through communication and training.
The ethical dilemma – description of how the company deals with human rights conflicts regarding human rights principles and a country's legal and structural system.
Compliance – With all relevant legislation regarding human rights.
Remedy practices - When the company causes or contributes to adverse human rights impacts, explain the company's remedy processes.
Continual improvements – The company must have processes in place to monitor the organization’s impact on human rights and document the steps to enable actions and possibilities to continuously improve. It should also be reviewed regularly to ensure legitimacy and relevance.
The organization's policy can be adopted to suit the particular business activities of the company. Some human rights issues that companies usually include in their policy is: accessibility for persons with disabilities, child labor and young workers, forced labor, non-discrimination, fair wages, working conditions (fair working hours), health & safety, right to strike, right to form or join a trade union and to bargain collectively, maternity protection, equality & diversity, and indigenous peoples.
Please note that a human rights policy or any policy is not a 100% solution for avoiding or mitigating potential/actual negative impacts. But it is a good first step for communicating what is expected internally and externally, for business relationships, and for everyone to understand the issues and how to act on them.