"Documenting business respect for human rights", September 2020

This snapshot provides an analysis of the human rights policies and self-reported human rights due diligence practices of 20 of the largest Danish companies...

In 2019, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) recommended that the Danish State adopt a legal framework which requires business entities to exercise human rights due diligence in their operations and in their business relationships, at home and abroad.

The snapshot measures Danish’ companies current documentation of alignment with the UNGPs and, in other words, not their actual behaviour... The snapshot uses the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark’s (CHRB) Core UNGP Indicator Assessment methodology...

The snapshot finds that:

• None of the companies assessed are currently demonstrating full alignment with the responsibility to respect human rights, as defined by the UNGPs...
• Companies have the weakest performance across the human rights due diligence indicators, with an average score of 3 out of the maximum 12 points...
• Access to remedy is one of the weakest areas of performance for companies assessed...

In light of the results of this snapshot as well as other studies and cases exploring Danish companies’ respect for human rights, we urge companies to improve their human rights due diligence practices and their publicly available information thereon...

[W]e recommend that the Danish government:

• Commits to developing and adopting Danish mandatory human rights due diligence legislation and to engage actively in the ongoing policy and regulatory developments at the EU level...