The human rights responsibilities of business in a changing world - 23 February 2017

Our new study looks at more than 3,000 companies headquartered in 35 countries… It assesses the degree to which listed companies around the globe commit and act to respect and promote, and prevent violations of, fundamental human rights , employees’ labour rights and non-discrimination at work in both their operations and their supply chain. It lists best performers in each category of human rights, highlights good practices and…underlines regional disparities and sector specifics. Finally, our survey illustrates negative impacts for a company’s image, organisation, operations, and legal certainty in cases of human rights negligence…

[key findings include:

"Less than 4% of companies disclose commitments that comprehensively cover human rights areas for which they have responsibility...

The overall score of multinationals on human rights issues is limited (score of 32/100)...

the respect and promotion of employees’ freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining is the area where the average company’s score is the weakest...

In 43% of controversy cases, companies did not respond to allegations, while only 3% were proactive in having adopted permanent corrective measures and consulted stakeholders."]