CHRB E.1. Public response to human rights violation incident 3
Did the company respond publicly to the third incident of human rights violations?
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.
This measurement theme focuses on responses to serious allegations of negative impacts a company may be alleged or reported to be responsible for by an external source. While previous measurement themes focused on the specific policies, systems, processes, and practices the company puts in place to proactively avoid adverse impacts, indicators in this measurement theme seek to assess a company's response to an allegation that an impact has occurred. The response to serious allegations measurement theme does not seek to assess the allegation itself.
Which allegations are included?
Recognising the need for companies to focus their resources on responding to severe and substantiated allegations, the following criteria will be applied to assess whether an allegation is assessed under this measurement theme. Severe impacts This measurement theme covers allegations of severe human rights impacts. The commentary to UN Guiding Principle 14 states that 'severity of impacts will be judged by their scale, scope and irremediable character'. The Interpretive Guide to the UN Guiding Principles provides additional information about severity. Severe negative impacts are defined in the Guiding Principles as those impacts that would be greatest in terms of:
a. scale: the gravity of the impact on the human right(s); and/or
b. scope: the number of individuals that are or could be affected; and/or
c. irremediability: the ease with which those impacted could be restored to their prior enjoyment of the right(s).
This measurement theme focuses on responses to serious allegations of negative impacts a company may be alleged or reported to be responsible for by an external source. While previous measurement themes focused on the specific policies, systems, processes, and practices the company puts in place to proactively avoid adverse impacts, indicators in this measurement theme seek to assess a company's response to an allegation that an impact has occurred. The response to serious allegations measurement theme does not seek to assess the allegation itself.
Which allegations are included?
Recognising the need for companies to focus their resources on responding to severe and substantiated allegations, the following criteria will be applied to assess whether an allegation is assessed under this measurement theme. Severe impacts This measurement theme covers allegations of severe human rights impacts. The commentary to UN Guiding Principle 14 states that 'severity of impacts will be judged by their scale, scope and irremediable character'. The Interpretive Guide to the UN Guiding Principles provides additional information about severity. Severe negative impacts are defined in the Guiding Principles as those impacts that would be greatest in terms of:
a. scale: the gravity of the impact on the human right(s); and/or
b. scope: the number of individuals that are or could be affected; and/or
c. irremediability: the ease with which those impacted could be restored to their prior enjoyment of the right(s).
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
In measurement theme E, companies against which no serious allegations meeting the CHRB thresholds are identified receive a proxy score that is the average of their scores in the other measurement themes. Companies where allegation(s) are found to meet the CHRB thresholds are scored across indicators E.1, E.2 and E.3, with a maximum of two points for each indicator.
The scoring will operate according to the following rules:
- companies against which no serious allegations meeting the CHRB thresholds are identified will receive a proxy score for measurement theme E that is the average of their scores in the other measurement themes.
- companies where allegation(s) are found to meet the CHRB thresholds, will be scored across indicators E.1, E.2 and E.3, with a maximum of two points for each indicator. Where there are multiple allegations, companies will be given an average score for all the allegations investigated.
The overall potential score for a company with at least one allegation in measurement theme E will be capped at the average of their scores in the other measurement themes.
Actual versus potential impacts
This measurement theme covers allegations of actual impacts; allegations regarding potential impacts that have a likelihood of occurring in the future are not addressed in this measurement theme but in other measurement themes of the benchmark. Therefore, in the context of this measurement theme, 'alleged' refers to impacts that the company may or may not have acknowledged (i.e. denied that it occurred, or that it has caused or contributed to the impact).
Scoring
In measurement theme E, companies against which no serious allegations meeting the CHRB thresholds are identified receive a proxy score that is the average of their scores in the other measurement themes. Companies where allegation(s) are found to meet the CHRB thresholds are scored across indicators E.1, E.2 and E.3, with a maximum of two points for each indicator.
The scoring will operate according to the following rules:
- companies against which no serious allegations meeting the CHRB thresholds are identified will receive a proxy score for measurement theme E that is the average of their scores in the other measurement themes.
- companies where allegation(s) are found to meet the CHRB thresholds, will be scored across indicators E.1, E.2 and E.3, with a maximum of two points for each indicator. Where there are multiple allegations, companies will be given an average score for all the allegations investigated.
The overall potential score for a company with at least one allegation in measurement theme E will be capped at the average of their scores in the other measurement themes.
Actual versus potential impacts
This measurement theme covers allegations of actual impacts; allegations regarding potential impacts that have a likelihood of occurring in the future are not addressed in this measurement theme but in other measurement themes of the benchmark. Therefore, in the context of this measurement theme, 'alleged' refers to impacts that the company may or may not have acknowledged (i.e. denied that it occurred, or that it has caused or contributed to the impact).
Topics
Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
Partially
No
Research Policy
Designer Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report