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Human rights are fundamental to the fairer, more socially inclusive world we want to see. That’s why respect for human rights is a non-negotiable part of doing business with Unilever, a commitment that is core to our company values.
In 2011, we publicly endorsed the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (PDF 1.08 MB) (UNGPs) and in 2015 published the first standalone human rights report (PDF 4.53 MB) using the United Nations Guiding Principles Reporting Framework. Since then, we’ve continued to develop our approach to addressing potential and actual impacts in line with the maturing business and human rights landscape.
Our human rights strategy is grounded in the principles of effective human rights due diligence (PDF 1.86 MB), with clear governance processes for delivery of our strategy. We have identified our salient human rights issues, defined by the UNGPs as 'the human rights that are at risk of the most severe negative impacts through a company’s activities or business relationships'. This helps us prioritise how we address human rights impacts across our operations and value chain. Further information can be found in our Human Rights strategy in the UNGPs Reporting Framework (PDF 100.91 KB).
Our strategy embeds respect for human rights within our own business, our value chain and wider society. See below to find out more about our approach to each:
Each and every person within our business deserves to have their rights respected.
Our value chain connects us with millions of people and our strategy aims to embed respect for the rights of all throughout our entire value chain.
As part of our commitment to the UNGPs, we provide regular updates on the progress of our strategy in our Annual Report and Accounts, Modern Slavery Statements and in the case studies published below:
Unilever aims to strengthen respect for human rights in its palm oil supply chain through due diligence, supplier support, smallholder empowerment and industry collaboration driving sustainable and inclusive impact.
We're collaborating with implementation partners to support our business partners strengthen their human rights due diligence through worker-led surveys and management maturity assessments. Insights from workers are informing action plans to address issues including harassment, discrimination and unsafe working conditions. We're scaling the programme deepen impact and expand to new geographies through a supplier-led cascade model.
Unilever's Responsible Sourcing Programme helps prevent harm, drive improvements and ensure accountability for human rights across our global value chain. Through risk assessments, on-site audits and corrective action plans, this programme aims to strengthen policies and practices that protect workers and support suppliers in meeting our standards.
Unilever’s rightsholder engagement guidance supports inclusive, trust-based engagement, helping teams identify, prioritise and engage rightsholders. It is at the core of our approach to human rights due diligence.
We explore technology solutions and experiment with new approaches that may help in tackling human rights issues. We piloted a new prototype over a 5-month period that aimed to create a more systematic and automated way to identify and classify potential impacts.
Our goal is to have 50% of our procurement spend with suppliers who signed the Living Wage Promise by 2026. Since launching our Framework for Fair Compensation, we became living wage compliant and were accredited by the Fair Wage Network in 2021. We are extending this commitment to our supply chain.
Collaboration is essential to drive industry change. As part of the Palm Oil Collaboration Group, we are working together to simplify human rights due diligence management systems in the palm sector and identify areas for improvement.
Unilever is a co-founder and member of the Fair Circularity Initiative, aiming to improve working conditions for waste pickers in our global plastics value chain.
Engaging with workers helps us to improve our approach to detecting, preventing, and resolving issues. We recently commissioned an independent review of a supplier recruitment fee remediation process which included extensive engagement with migrant workers to understand their experiences.
Unilever participates in multistakeholder platforms to collaboratively address discrimination and harassment in key commodity supply chains, including through the Women's Safety Accelerator Fund (WSAF), which aims to create safer workplaces for women in our tea supply chain.
Our work is mapped to the UNGPs reporting framework (PDF 100.91 KB) and we have also developed an impact measurement framework to evaluate the impact of our human rights due diligence approach.
Please visit Our policies | Unilever for policies related to human rights.
Human Rights Impact Assessments (PDF 110.01 KB)
Unilever Responsible Partner Policy Audit Update 2023 (PDF 1.15 MB)
Unilever Responsible Partner Policy Audit Update. 2021 & 2022 data (PDF 2.19 MB)
Human Rights report 2022 (PDF 514.63 KB)
Human Rights report 2021 (PDF 2.81 MB)
Human Rights report 2020 (PDF 7.14 MB)
Human Rights supplier audit update 2020 (PDF 1.67 MB)
Human Rights supplier audit update 2019 (PDF 3.34 MB)
Human Rights supplier audit update 2018 (PDF 3.81 MB)
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