GRI Releases New Human Rights Reporting Guidance

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has published two new reports  recently. They examine trends in corporate measurement, reporting on human rights performance, and  practical guidance for companies engaging in 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 chronic 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.  It was developed through extensive expert consultation over the past year.

President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, Mary Robinson, 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.

Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, Georg Kell, 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.

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.

Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, Ernst Ligteringen, 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.

Download the reports from: http://www.globalreporting.org/HumanRights