New Reports Offer Practical Guidance on Human Rights Reporting for Companies
12 November 2009 at 2:05 pm
As part of a collaborative project “Human Rights: A Call to Action” launched in October 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative commissioned two studies to advance efforts on human rights reporting.
The first, a survey of recent sustainability reports by over 50 leading companies, examines trends in current corporate disclosures on human rights and highlights good practice examples as well as ongoing shortcomings in reporting in this area.
The second report offers a practical guide for companies on steps they can take to improve their coverage of human rights as part of their sustainability reports and was developed through extensive expert consultation over the past year.
Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative says the findings and recommendations will be of significant help to companies and other stakeholders working to improve sustainability reports as a key tool in enhancing transparency and accountability around the world.
A final output of the initiative is a set of recommendations on updates to the human rights elements of the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Guidelines – the world’s most widely-used sustainability reporting framework – which will form the basis for stakeholder consultation in early 2010.
Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, says the GRI Guidelines were designed to evolve alongside the collective knowledge of the field of sustainability.
In recent years the work of UN Special Representative John Ruggie and greater understanding of business’ role in human rights have increased this collective knowledge.
Ligteringen says these developments informed the Human Rights Working Group and have proposed a particularly insightful set of recommendations on changes to the GRI Guidelines.
Download the reports from: http://www.globalreporting.org/HumanRights
