The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark for 2017 has been published. The Benchmark assesses 98 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other internationally recognised human rights and industry standards. The companies assessed are all from high-risk industries – agricultural products, apparel and extractives.
The Benchmark examines companies’ policies, governance, processes, practices, and transparency, as well as how they respond to serious allegations of human rights abuse. This is done by scoring the companies on 100 indicators across six measurement themes. The analysis found that a small number of companies (including BHP Billiton, Marks & Spencer Group, Rio Tinto, Nestle, Adidas and Unilever) emerged as leaders scoring between 55-69 per cent, but the results skewed significantly to the lower bands. A clear majority, 63 out of 98 companies, scored below 30 per cent.
The Benchmark’s creators hope that investors will use its results in their analysis of companies and investment decision making, including the identification of key human rights risks to discuss with management. The Benchmark creators also believe that the ranking paves the way for governments to use a mix of regulation and incentives to enhance transparency and minimum standards of corporate behaviour to make the business case for the respect of human rights.
(CHRB, Corporate Human Rights Benchmark - Key Findings 2017, 16.03.17)