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Respect human rights

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 147.43 KB), 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).

An illustration showing a diverse group of people speaking about our eight salient human rights issues.

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:

Human rights in our own operations

Each and every person within our business deserves to have their rights respected.

Human rights in our own operations
A man in a hard hat and high visibility waistcoat studies a dashboard in a factory

Human rights in our value chain

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.

Human rights in our value chain
A woman checks out young plants in pots on a palm oil plantation in Indonesia

Evaluating our progress

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.

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Please visit Our policies | Unilever for policies related to human rights.

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