The normative framework supporting human rights universally places primary responsibility on state organs while enjoining other parties, including businesses, to protect human rights within their respective spheres of influence.
In recent years business organisations have been under increasing pressure from consumers, employees, investors, communities and governments about their commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practices, including human rights.
For instance, John Ruggie, the UN special representative on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations, has underlined the state’s duty to protect against non-state abuses by regulating and creating possibilities for adjudicating abuse by business enterprises. Moreover, he emphasised that the extension of liability to companies for international crimes and the growing number of initiatives dealing with corporate responsibilities for human rights have a major effect on the involvement of companies in this field.
There have been developments in the global and local corporate citizenship architecture, with the emergence of a number of initiatives and guidance documents. But companies are often unsure about how to assess the impact of their operations on people (within the company and within its wider sphere of influence). Combined with the emphasis on corporate self-regulation, companies are increasingly looking for practical tools to implement human rights within policies, procedures, practices and performance.
Fulfilling this lacuna is the Human Rights compliance assessment, an innovative web-based tool developed by the Danish Institute of Human Rights to assess an organisation’s employment practices, its impact on communities and supply chain management practices so as to ensure its sustainability and promote socially responsible business. The voluntary self-assessment diagnostic tool helps companies detect potential human-rights violations and to assist them in improving their policies, practices and performance in the area of human rights.
The compliance assessment tool, consisting of 1 000 indicators and 350 questions, is relevant to countries through the application of the country risk assessment, which analyses a country’s political, economic, legal and social environment and possible risk areas regarding human-rights violations. Organisations can also obtain a snapshot of their overall business practices through an abridged version, the quick check, which has 300 indicators with 28 questions.
Already operational in 62 countries worldwide, this global tool has been customised for South Africa by Human Rights and Business Project South Africa (SA-project), which is coordinated by the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship. The SA-project provides a multi-stakeholder platform involving cooperation between businesses, the public sector, NGOs and research organisations towards mainstreaming human-rights issues as part of core business strategy in South Africa.
Organisations that have been part of the SA-project include: Benchmarks Foundation of Southern Africa, Kulumani Support Group, the National African Farmers Union of South Africa, Fair Trade and Tourism South Africa, the University of Cape Town’s environmental monitoring unit and the South African Human Rights Commission, as well as Cosatu, the JSE, the National Business Initiative, the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law and the Association for Rural Advancement.
The South African compliance assessment comprises 38 questions and about 300 indicators. The questions are based on the South African country risk assessment and questions from the quick check and the entire compliance assessment database. In addition, a number of new questions were developed that are specific to South Africa. These are based on additional research and inputs from organisations involved in the Human Rights and Business Project South Africa, as well as lessons gained from field testing the generic compliance assessment on a number of South African companies.
The check contains the most essential human-rights issues a company must consider in relation to its activities in South Africa. The South African compliance assessment is part of the larger compliance assessment computer program, which contains more extensive guidance on a broad range of human-rights issues. The South African compliance assessment (called Masizibheke — “let’s look at ourselves”) is available in hard copy and as an online computer program.
Results of market research recently conducted among 280 South African companies indicate that more than 70% of the companies interviewed are interested in the South African compliance assessment. With this web-based tool, companies can now assess their compliance with international human-rights practices in matters such as labour rights, community-impact supply chain issues and even assess the feasibility of expanding their operations to other markets.
The South African compliance assessment will be launched at a national multi-stakeholder conference on human rights and business being convened by the South African Human Rights Commission, the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as another bold step towards strengthening the human rights environment in South Africa.