Human Rights Principles for Companies: A Checklist
This introductory checklist is intended as a working document which will be revised and updated on the basis of discussion and experience. AI welcomes comments on all these principles from companies, trade unions, non-governmental organizations and others.*
Company policy on human rights
All companies should adopt an explicit company policy on human rights which includes public support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Companies should establish procedures to ensure that all operations are examined for their potential impact on human rights, and safeguards to ensure that company staff is never complicit in human rights abuses. The company policy should enable discussion with the authorities at local, provincial and national levels of specific cases of human rights violations and the need for safeguards to protect human rights. It should enable the establishment of programs for the effective human rights education and training of all employees within the company and encourage collective action in business associations to promote respect for international human rights standards.
Security
All companies should ensure that any security arrangements protect human rights and are consistent with international standards for law enforcement. Any security personnel employed or contracted shouId be adequately trained. Procedures should be consistent with thc United Nations (UN) Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. They should include measures to prevent excessive force, as well as torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Companies should develop clear rules for calling in or contracting with state security forces and for not hiring security personnel who have been responsible for serious human rights violations. Any complaint about security procedures or personnel should be promptly and independently investigated. Companies which supply military security or police products or services should take stringent steps to prevent those products and services from being misused to commit human rights violations.
Community engagement
All companies should take reasonable steps to ensure that their operations do not have a negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights by the communities in.which they operate. This should include a willingness to meet with community leaders and voluntary organizations to discuss the role of the company within the broader community. Companies should work cooperatively with organizations which promote human rights.
Freedom from discrimination
All companies should ensure that their policies and practices prevent discrimination based on ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, religion, political or other conscientiously held beliefs, birth or other status. This should include recruitment, promotion, remuneration, working conditions, customer relations and the practices of contractors, suppliers and partners. It should include measures to deal with sexual or racial harassment, and to prohibit national, racial or religious hatred.
Freedom from slavery
All companies should ensure that their policies and practices prohibit the use of chattel slaves, forced labor, bonded child laborers or coerced prison labor. This should include ensuring that suppliers, partners or contractors do not use such labour.
Health and safety
All companies should ensure that their policies and practices provide for safe and healthy working conditions and products. The company should not engage in or support the use of corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion, or verbal abuse.
Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
All companies should ensure that all employees are able to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, as well as a fair means of collective bargaining without discrimination, including the right to form trade unions and to strike. Companies have a responsibility to ensure such rights for their employees even if such rights are not protected in a particular country's national law. Companies should take steps to ensure that suppliers, partners or contractors do not infringe such rights.
Fair working conditions
All companies should ensure just and favorable conditions of work, reasonable job security and fair and adequate remuneration and benefits. This should include provision for an adequate standard of living for employees and their families. Companies should take steps to ensure that suppliers, partners or contractors do not infringe such rights.
Child Labor
Companies shall not engage in or support the use of child labor as defined by applicable national laws and relevant internationa standards.
Monitoring human rights
All companies should establish mechanisms to monitor effectively all their operations' compliance with codes of conduct and international human rights standards. Such mechanisms must be credible and all reports must periodically be independently verifiable in a similar way to the auditing of accounts or the quality of products and services. Other stakeholders such as members of local communities in which the company operates and voluntary organizations should have an opportunity to contribute in order to ensure transparency and credibility.
Sources:
1. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), preamble Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
2. UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, UDHR Articles 3, 5, and 9 UP Basic Prinicples on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials Principles Governing Conventional Arms Transfers of the Oraganization for Security Cooperation in Europe.
3. UDHR Articles 21, and 26 International Labor Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
4. UDHR Article 2, ILO Conventions 100,111, and l65.
5. UDHR Article 4, ILO Convention 29,105, and 138.
6. UDHR Article 3, ILO Convention 155.
7. UDHR Articles 20, and 23 ILO Conventions 87, 98, and 135.
8. UDHR Articles 23, and 24 ILO Convention including 95 and 131 (on wages), 14 and lO6 (on weekly rest), and l32 (on holidays with pay).
9. ILO Conventions 138,146.
