Non-profit centre on business and human rights, Shift, have joined with Mazars to invite commentary on a discussion paper they've published on the development of global standards for human rights reporting and assurance.
The proposed standards are intended to allow companies to indicate the extent to which they are aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were developed by Shift's chairman John Ruggie, and endorsed unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011.
The reporting standard will allow companies to issue a Human Rights Statement that demonstrates how their internal policies and processes align with the UN Guiding Principles, and assist them on a journey of continuous improvement. The accompanying assurance standard, will allow independent external human rights assurance providers to confirm that the company's Human Rights Statement fairly represents its human rights-related policies and processes.
Mazars UK's head of social performance and human rights reporting Richard Karmel said that several companies had made good progress in reporting how their business impacts on human rights.
'However, the approach to reporting has thus far been variable and fragmented. Recent events such as the garment factory tragedy in Bangladesh only serve to highlight just how much there still is to do. These standards will help companies reflect not just on how effectively they manage direct impacts on human rights, but also indirect ones in their supply chains and on other remote stakeholders. They will also give external assurance providers a more in depth framework for assessing and confirming the quality of these systems,' said Karmel.
Caroline Rees, president of Shift said that the UN 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework describes what companies are required to do to ensure respect for human rights throughout their operations.
'But there isn't yet a widely accepted process for them to demonstrate whether their policies and processes are actually aligned with the Guiding Principles in reality. This should also help companies' internal auditors, who are increasingly including human rights performance in their work,' said Rees.
The consultation into the paper will include company representatives, civil society organisations, governments and inter-governmental organisations, stock exchanges, institutional investors and auditing, reporting and other professional organisations.
The discussion paper is available HERE
