“A Tale of Two Cities”: Launch of 2018 Corporate Human Rights Benchmark
12 November 2018
On 12th November 2018, John Morrison, IHRB's CEO, delivered a speech at the launch of the 2018 Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) in London. This is CHRB's second set of results and reveals a disparity of performance among large corporations:
"The good news is that some of the companies assessed have made real progress in disclosing their human rights performance. We should remember such disclosure is not at the request of the Benchmark. United Nations and OECD standards call for such transparency. Increasing interest in corporate reporting legislation at the national level is seen from Australia to Norway, France to Switzerland. There are some real success stories – companies determined to demonstrate how they are implementing the corporate responsibility to respect human rights.
"The less good news is that there are companies living in another city – which have stubbornly remained unengaged from human rights, and if they are managing their risks and negative impacts, they are not being transparent about doing so. Do not assume for one moment that these laggards are only in one business sector or fall under jurisdictions somewhere far from here. Many scoring below 10% on this year’s Benchmark are well-known retail brands."
Download and read the full speech here.
