“What do the UNGPs expect companies to do about racial discrimination?”, 8 June 2020

The protests across the United States over the past week [has]… seen some corporate leaders, or marketing and communications departments, making more or less bold statements against racism. However, speaking out and engaging in philanthropy should not be confused with what is expected of companies pursuant to the “corporate responsibility to respect human rights” as elaborated in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs)…

The UNGPs ask companies to assess the risk that they cause, contribute to or are directly linked to racial discrimination by their products, services or operations, through their business relationships:

1. Assess how [a company can] potentially exacerbate existing societal discrimination, which may be structural or institutionalised:  seemingly neutral – or even well-meaning - products, services, policies or practices can have unintended…impacts. Contextual understanding should be built on engagement with those who are potentially impacted by the company’s activities, as well as scientific and sociological research that helps identify existing racial discrimination…
    
2. Assess the company’s potential involvement in racial discrimination across its activities: While diversity and inclusion efforts within companies are [crucial]…, companies also need to assess possible involvement in discrimination in their core business and across the company’s activities:…business units, operations and corporate activities…

Only a robust assessment across the company’s activities, with an inclusive look at potentially impacted people, will offer the appropriate foundations for knowing and showing that the company is not involved in racial discrimination.