| Summary: | Human rights are central to ethical business conduct. Respecting human rights is mandated in various ways through legislation, international standards, and stakeholder expectations. Standards such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide a framework for respecting human rights. However, pragmatic guidance and translating requirements into everyday business practices are lacking.
The human rights due diligence (HRDD) process begins with the identification and prioritization of human rights risks. In this initial step, companies identify and select the risks and impacts on which they will focus their mitigation measures. Companies with global supply chains face significant challenges in efficiently identifying and assessing risks within complex supply networks that span the globe and extend to multiple tiers. Traditionally, academic research on supply chain management has concentrated on monetary risks, whereas the focus is now shifting toward the risks affecting people, communities, and the environment. Therefore, a new type of research is needed to explore practices for identifying and assessing human rights.
This thesis investigates ways companies can identify and prioritize human rights risks in global supply chains. The study uses a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews with corporate professionals. The findings emphasize the necessity of combining human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) with multi-source data, adopting a saliency-based approach to prioritization, and fostering stakeholder engagement. To ensure the feasibility of the findings, they are applied to a case company to demonstrate real-life implications. Academic contribution is made by venturing into an unstudied field within sustainability – the practical steps for applying human rights due diligence. The discussion and insights presented in the study are essential for improving the recognition and practice of safeguarding the rights of others over business as usual.
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