Purpose
A policy statement approved by the highest levels of the enterprise expresses a company’s commitment to meet the responsibility to respect human rights and to embed that commitment into the company’s culture:
UNGP 16
As the basis for embedding their responsibility to respect human rights, business enterprises should express their commitment to meet this responsibility through a statement of policy that:
- is approved at the most senior level of the business enterprise;
- is informed by relevant internal and/or external expertise;
- stipulates the enterprise’s human rights expectations of personnel, business partners and other parties directly linked to its operations, products or services;
- is publicly available and communicated internally and externally to all personnel, business partners and other relevant parties;
- is reflected in operational policies and procedures necessary to embed it throughout the business enterprise.
This commitment is a message “from the top” that respect for human rights is a core value for the company: it sets expectations for the behaviour of personnel, business partners and other relevant parties linked to the company’s activities and provides information on how the company will implement its human rights commitments.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre hosts a page listing numerous company policy statements on human rights - including many commodity companies and traders.
Key Actions
There are five key actions involved in developing a policy commitment:
Definition Human rights policy commitment
A statement approved at the highest levels of the business that shows it is committed to respecting human rights and is communicated internally and externally.
Cobalt mine, Morocco
