CHRB A.1.1.S1 Commitment to respect human rights
Does the company have a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights OR a publicly available policy statement committing it to the rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) OR a publicly available policy statement committing it to the International Bill of Human Rights?
About the data
This metric is from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), part of the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), which has been assessing the human rights disclosures of some of the largest global companies since 2017. By ranking these companies on their policies, processes and practices, as well as how they respond to serious allegations, the CHRB aims to create a race to the top through which companies strive to fulfil their responsibility to respect the human rights of the individuals and communities that they impact.
Policy commitments
What do the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) expect?
A policy commitment is a statement approved at the highest levels of the business that shows the company is committed to respecting human rights and communicates this internally and externally.
Note: The term “statement” is used to describe a wide range of forms a company may use to set out publicly its responsibilities, commitments, and expectations – this may be a separate human rights policy or human rights commitments within other formal policies, or provisions within other documents that govern the company’s approach such as a company code, business principles, etc.
Why is this important?
A policy commitment sets the “tone at the top” of the company that is needed to continually drive respect for human rights into the core values and culture of the business. It indicates that top management considers respect for human rights to be a minimum standard for conducting business with legitimacy; it sets out their
Policy commitments
What do the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) expect?
A policy commitment is a statement approved at the highest levels of the business that shows the company is committed to respecting human rights and communicates this internally and externally.
Note: The term “statement” is used to describe a wide range of forms a company may use to set out publicly its responsibilities, commitments, and expectations – this may be a separate human rights policy or human rights commitments within other formal policies, or provisions within other documents that govern the company’s approach such as a company code, business principles, etc.
Why is this important?
A policy commitment sets the “tone at the top” of the company that is needed to continually drive respect for human rights into the core values and culture of the business. It indicates that top management considers respect for human rights to be a minimum standard for conducting business with legitimacy; it sets out their
Methodology
The benchmark uses publicly available information from the company’s website(s), its formal financial and non-financial reporting or other public documents, plus statements such as those related to its policy commitments. These could be codes of conduct, policies, values, guidelines, FAQs and other related documents. The CHRB also considers reports, such as annual, corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports, or human rights reports if these are available, or other reports written for other purposes if these contain information applicable to the CHRB indicators. Full methodology for each sector can be found here.
Scoring:
Most CHRB indicators operate using 'OR' and 'AND' rules. Where two or more requirements are separated by 'AND', companies being benchmarked are required to complete both or all of the options listed in order to obtain a full point but they can score half points if they meet at least one of the requirements. Where two or more requirements are separated by 'OR', companies being benchmarked are required to complete one of the options listed.
Research note on commitment language
Because of this, whenever a CHRB indicator requires a policy commitment, the CHRB researchers will look for an explicit commitment or any form of promise that companies will uphold the specific rights, instruments and/or standards listed in the indicator description. This means that language that is ambiguous, vague or weak will be considered insufficient to qualify as a clear expression of commitment.
Scoring:
Most CHRB indicators operate using 'OR' and 'AND' rules. Where two or more requirements are separated by 'AND', companies being benchmarked are required to complete both or all of the options listed in order to obtain a full point but they can score half points if they meet at least one of the requirements. Where two or more requirements are separated by 'OR', companies being benchmarked are required to complete one of the options listed.
Research note on commitment language
Because of this, whenever a CHRB indicator requires a policy commitment, the CHRB researchers will look for an explicit commitment or any form of promise that companies will uphold the specific rights, instruments and/or standards listed in the indicator description. This means that language that is ambiguous, vague or weak will be considered insufficient to qualify as a clear expression of commitment.
Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
No
Research Policy
Designer Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report