LOGIN
Click here to receive automatic email updates on the most recent developments of your favorite GGW topic.
Global Reporting Initiative Calls for Improved Corporate Human Rights Performance Reporting
Category: Global Regulation
Friday, May 9, 2008
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), in conjunction with Claremont McKenna College, recently published a report on corporate human rights performance. Entitled “Reporting on Human Rights,” this survey evaluates “the extent to which performance information is reported by companies to describe their compliance with widely accepted human rights objectives.” The study based its evaluation on the GRI G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which contain nine specific “Performance Indicators” relating to the implementation of human rights in company practice.
The study surveyed the reports of a sample of 100 companies, 59 of which have voluntarily adopted the G3 Guidelines. Most of the companies commented on their policy stance towards at least one issue that has been classified as a human right by one or more major international agreements (such as the UN Global Compact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Labor Organization Core Conventions, among others), and which is also contained within the G3 Guidelines. However, no company referenced all of the Human Rights Performance Indicators specified in the G3 Guidelines. This could be because some of the G3 Indicators have been of public concern for longer lengths of time and are reflected in international law to a greater extent than other Indicators. Furthermore, very few companies gave the quantitative information on their performance regarding human rights practices called for in the G3 Guidelines. According to the report, this is problematic because, while company policy and procedure in relation to human rights are important, company performance is what really matters. Performance statistics “respond to the stakeholders’ need to be reassured that the company is doing something proactive about the potential problem rather than just being lucky or in denial.” The report encourages companies to publish more quantitative information to ensure the effectiveness of their human rights policies.
A JOINT PROGRAM OF
