After over two decades of incomplete but overall significant progress on corporate respect for human rights, we are at a crossroads. With the global rise of authoritarianism, narrow economic nationalisms, and corporate capture, and a rapidly changing US context, weāre facing real risk of backsliding by business on human rights.
Our analysis of top US companiesā policies and commitments across five sectors revealed that, beyond well-documented roll-backs like DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and some climate commitments, companies are largely maintaining their human rights policies and commitments on paper.
A closer examination of actions by US companies amidst shifts in policies, regulations, and rhetoric in the US and across the globe, however,Ā reveals a more complex and concerning picture. In accompanying analysis published in late 2025, we find that the current context brings heightened risk, which brings heightened responsibility. Future analyses will also examine whether companies are maintaining the capacity needed to implement their human rights commitments, impacts on rightsholders, and lobbying and advocacy activities. Our aim is protect over two decades of progress on business and human rights.
Using the policy/commitment index
The policy/commitment index shares overviews of the human rights policies, commitments, memberships and disclosures (as of 31 August 2025) for 54 US-headquartered companies across the technology, apparel, extractives, automotive, and agrifood (food/beverage and agriculture) sectors. We hope that civil society organizations and investors will use these reviews in their advocacy and efforts to better understand the state of these companies' human rights commitments and any changes over time. The Business and Human Rights Centre will periodically update these reviews.
Our reviews are not evaluations of the quality of companiesā policies and commitments, nor do we offer commentary on whether a company's statement meets a threshold to ācountā toward an indicator. Rather, we capture companiesā statements related to a topic at a particular moment in time and monitor any changes over time.
Business and human rights in the United States: Four key trends in 2025
Companiesā core human rights policies and commitments remain largely unchanged, in contrast to some shifts in human rights-related AI and content moderation policies, and well-documented rollbacks on commitments related to DEI and climate. While commitments havenāt changed on paper, our analysis of companiesā responses to changing policies, regulations and rhetoric in the US paints a more alarming picture.
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