By Rachel Rigby, Director of Extended Supply Chain Programs & Michael Vaudreuil,Director of Enterprise Human Rights Due Diligence
This article is the first of Verité’s Human Rights Due Diligence Insight Series. In each article, we’ll break down one step of the HRDD process, providing a clear picture of best practices; real-world examples of successful implementation; and practical tips to make human rights due diligence (HRDD) work for your business.
Embedding human rights means integrating them into your company’s DNA—its culture, strategy, and daily operations. It’s about placing human rights on par with other core business priorities like efficiency, quality, cost, and environmental sustainability. This requires a fundamental shift in how businesses perceive their role and responsibilities in the global economy, moving beyond mere compliance to proactive engagement with human rights issues.
To achieve this paradigm shift, companies should:
- Establish clear policy commitments to respect human rights in their operations and throughout their supply chains.
- Integrate these commitments into operational systems by establishing executive-level accountability for achieving policy objectives.
- Incorporate human rights into core systems and processes, such as procurement, production, human resources, and supply chain management.
- Build internal capabilities and allocate adequate resources.
Embedding at enterprise level
Embedding human rights at the enterprise level requires a critical self-examination of your company’s core business practices and day-to-day operations. This means putting human rights considerations alongside other core business priorities such as efficiency, quality, cost, and environmental sustainability.
Companies should create clear, unambiguous policies that commit to respecting human rights in their own operations and throughout their supply chains. To put these policies into practice, they need to:
- Assign executive-level accountability for policy goals.
- Incorporate human rights into core systems like procurement, production, human resources, and supply chain management.
- Establish formal governance processes.
- Build internal capabilities and allocate sufficient resources to ensure human rights commitments are met.
Moreover, companies need to examine their own procurement, pricing, and production strategies to ensure they actively support—rather than undermine—their suppliers’ ability to uphold human rights standards and comply with legal and code of conduct requirements.
Here’s where many companies falter, often unknowingly undermining their own HRDD objectives and perpetuating human rights harms:
- Negotiating prices of goods or services without considering the cost of meeting human rights requirements.
- Pressuring suppliers to reduce prices or shorten production or delivery timelines post-contract.
- Buying commodities on the spot market or paying “market price”.
These practices often become critical drivers of human rights violations in supply chains, perpetuating poverty and other human rights harms among small producers and workers while undermining companies’ own HRDD efforts.
Leading companies are taking a different approach:
Promoting respect for human rights without incentivizing counterproductive behavior
Leaders in this space are employing strategies that reflect the interconnectedness of financial performance and ethical practices. By aligning incentives with human rights objectives, these companies are creating management systems with internal rewards and incentives for meeting HRDD objectives. For example, procurement staff should not be paid a bonus for getting their suppliers to shorten delivery times if this means the supplier’s workers would be required to work excessive hours to meet the new deadlines. Instead, their bonus should be based on the supplier meeting the company’s expectations around cost, quality, delivery, and human rights compliance. Similarly, businesses should develop a formal system offering suppliers incentives (e.g., price premiums, stable order volumes) for meeting the company’s human rights performance standards.
The First Mile of agricultural supply chains: where risks run high
New due diligence legislation requires companies to prioritize the parts of their supply chains where human rights are most likely to be violated. In agriculture, these high-risk areas are often found in the “first mile” of production—locations like palm oil mills, sugar mills, coffee wet mills, cocoa cooperatives, cotton gins, and fruit packing plants —and in the small farms from which they source.
Risks at the first mile and farm level include precarious livelihoods, child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, and repression of union rights and human rights defenders. First mile operations must put in place measures to protect human rights in their own operations and supply chains.
Even with smaller operations and relatively simple management systems, first mile operations can optimize these systems for effective HRDD. Verité’s work with sugar suppliers in Mexico demonstrates how creative solutions can leverage existing processes to integrate HRDD into daily operations, moving beyond mere annual audit preparation.
Some examples of this approach:
- Map the Risk Landscape: Conduct a human rights risk assessment that includes your own operations, the small producers from which you source, and every level in between – including labor recruiters and providers. This crucial first step provides a clear picture of potential issues and vulnerable areas in your operations and supply chain.
- Leverage Quality Control: Integrate labor monitoring into existing processes for quality control. For instance, when checking sugarcane quality, also monitor for the presence of minors in the fields and workers’ access to shade, hydration, and rest. This integrated approach allows mills to collect real-time data on trends and risks, enabling the development of targeted prevention and response programs.
- Equip the Front Lines: Provide targeted training for workers, field supervisors, crew leaders, and labor recruiters– actors who are often left out of standard supply chain training programs. Focus on the supply chain level where risks are highest, and on the stakeholders who most need knowledge and tools to modify their practices. This positions those on the front lines to identify and address human rights issues proactively.
See Element 1 (Embed) of Verité’s Farm Labor Due Diligence Kit for detailed HRDD guidance for agricultural commodity supply chains.
HRDD from abstract concept to concrete action
Embedding HRDD into your business is about making respect for human rights integral to how you operate, not just ensuring compliance. As we’ve explored, true embedding means integrating human rights considerations into your company’s DNA, from enterprise-level strategies to first-mile operations. To move HRDD from an abstract concept to concrete action, start with benchmarking tools, such as our Farm Level Due Diligence Maturity Benchmarking Tool, to assess your current position and identify gaps.
While you may have some pieces in place, remember that a comprehensive approach is key, as each element reinforces the others, creating a robust system for respecting human rights. By taking these steps, you’re not just preparing for new legislation—you’re building a more resilient, ethical, and ultimately successful business that places human rights at the core of its operations.
About the Authors:
Rachel Rigby is a senior sustainability leader with 20 years of experience driving social impact, due diligence, and respect for labor rights in global supply chains. She has deep knowledge of best practices in sustainability and ESG policies and frameworks in the agriculture sector, and a strong track record of building international and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Rachel leads Verité’s Extended Supply Chain Programs practice group and oversees the Verité Farm Labor Due Diligence Initiative.
Michael Vaudreuil leads Verité’s Enterprise Human Rights Due Diligence practice group, which provides consulting to multi-nationals and multi-stakeholder initiatives on supply chain HRDD strategies and systems. He is responsible for the development and delivery of key Verité systems-based tools and training that translate ethical sourcing requirements into effective human rights risk management with a focus on embedding human rights into everyday business processes. He is also the lead consultant to the U.S. State Department in the development of tools for the prevention of trafficking in persons in government contracting.
