New Reports Offer Practical Guidance on Human Rights Reporting for Companies
(
Amsterdam/Geneva/New York, 11 November 2009
) – Two new reports being released this week
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.
As part of a collaborative project “Human Rights: A Call to Action” launched last year to
mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Global Reporting
Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization
Initiative commissioned two studies to advance efforts on human rights reporting. The first, a
survey of recent sustainability reports by over 50 leading companies, examines trends in current
corporate disclosures on human rights and highlights good practice examples as well as ongoing
shortcomings in reporting in this area. The second report offers a practical guide for companies on
steps they can take to improve their coverage of human rights as part of their sustainability
reports and was developed through extensive expert consultation over the past year.
Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
said: “My colleagues and I at Realizing Rights have been pleased to collaborate with GRI and
the Global Compact on improving guidance for corporate reporting on human rights issues. We believe
our findings and recommendations will be of significant help to companies and other stakeholders
working to improve sustainability reports as a key tool in enhancing transparency and
accountability around the world.”
Georg Kell, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, said: “As companies
everywhere are developing a better understanding of the relevance of human rights to their
strategies and operations, these new reports will be of great value in improving corporate
reporting and ultimately help companies on their path to continuous performance improvement.”&
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A final output of this important initiative is a set of recommendations on updates to the
human rights elements of the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Guidelines – the world’s most
widely-used sustainability reporting framework. Published today, the recommendations will form the
basis for stakeholder consultation in early 2010.
Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, said: “The GRI
Guidelines were designed to evolve alongside our collective knowledge of the field of
sustainability. In recent years the work of UN Special Representative John Ruggie and greater
understanding of business’ role in human rights have increased this collective knowledge.
These developments informed the Human Rights Working Group who have proposed a particularly
insightful set of recommendations on changes to the GRI Guidelines. I now look forward to that
knowledge being shared with a wider public, to receive feedback from the many stakeholders for whom
the measurement, management and reporting of human rights is a key business issue.”
Contact
Scott McAusland
Global Reporting Initiative
scott.mcausland@globalreporting.org
+31 20 531 0034
Scott Jerbi
Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
scott.jerbi@eginitiative.org
+ 41 22 755 2125
Ursula Wynhoven
United Nations Global Compact
wynhoven@un.org
+1 212 963 5705
