Two new reports were published this week as a result of a collaborative effort among The United Nations Global Compact, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and the Global Reporting Initiative. The reports examine trends in corporate measurement and reporting on human rights performance and provide practical guidance for companies engaging on this emerging area of corporate citizenship and accountability.
A Resource Guide to Corporate Human Rights Reporting [Download PDF]
This guide is designed to help organizations identify relevant human rights issues in their operations and to assist in meaningful and effective reporting of their practices related to human rights. While human rights are an increasingly important component of the CSR movement, most businesses struggle to integrate human rights reporting into their sustainability disclosures. By examining current trends in human rights reporting and providing recommendations, this report can help companies make significant progress as they plan their future initiatives.
Corporate Human Rights Reporting – An Analysis of Current Trends [Download PDF]
This report analyzes 57 recent sustainability reports from a wide range of industries to present encouraging trends and areas where there is room for improvement. The reports reviewed were all from the 2008-9 reporting cycle, represented several geographic regions, and were standalone sustainability or corporate responsibility reports. Through this analysis, it is hoped that organizations will find ideas to build on and that a debate on how to improve human rights reporting will flourish.
Notable strengths found in many reports include:
• the level of stakeholder engagement has increased significantly across the board, with many companies engaging NGOs and outside panels to strengthen the balance of reports.
• supply chain reporting has increased, focusing on ways to implement human rights programs within company supply chains.
Weaknesses identified include:
• There is a lack of emphasis on community involvement. Most companies rely on corporate philanthropy initiatives to create the illusion of greater community engagement.
• Companies continue to find it extremely challenging to report on impact and results with respect to human rights, preferring rather to discuss efforts and processes.