Reporting on Human Rights With GRI Standards

There is a clear increase in focus on the "S" in 'ESG', and human rights is a fundamental issue concerning all organizations and their impact. Human rights are also foundational for broader ESG reporting, not just on social issues, but also across the entire sustainability spectrum. The GRI Universal Standards underwent a significant update in October 2021, integrating human rights reporting as a mandatory component of the standards rather than an optional, standalone topic (formerly known as GRI 412). This means that, for the first time, all organizations using the GRI Standards are expected to report on how they respect human rights.

This month, GRI hosted the third session of our five-part 2023 webinar series, Reporting in Practice. This program is exclusively offered to our GRI Community members and is designed to support organizations and service providers in their reporting process, from preparation all the way to publication. Members can benefit from practical insights not only from GRI staff but also from fellow GRI Community members and external experts.

The session began with GRI staff providing subject matter expertise on the implementation of human rights, delving into critical aspects, such as human rights due diligence. This crucial process requires companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and be accountable for their impact on human rights. Building upon this foundation, the conversation then transitioned to guest speakers, including a representative from AmerisourceBergen, a public US Fortune 500 company in the global drug wholesale industry. AmerisourceBergen’s ESG expert provided valuable insights and real-world examples of how their organization incorporates human rights practices and commitments.

The AmerisourceBergen representative said:

“We pulled together a small working group and we said, alright we need to build a human rights policy statement, we need to take all the things that are happening across the company that support this commitment and put it into a formal document and put it on our website. I just give this as an example because, GRI, the materiality process and the standards really helped provide a backbone and avenue for us to think about this. It is not necessarily one of our top 5 material issues, but it is still something we consider material and wanted to make sure we had the right policy in place.” 

The updated GRI Universal Standards raises the standard for human rights reporting and environmental due diligence, being the first and only global reporting standards to fully align with transparency expectations for sustainability impacts on human rights, as set out in authoritative and intergovernmental instruments including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, among others.

In addition, the GRI Standards offer the strongest coverage of the "S" in 'ESG', encompassing 17 standards dedicated to addressing social topics, as well as many other Topic Standards that also hold relevance from a social perspective. Learn more about GRI Standards, as well as other reporting resources that GRI provides.