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Our approach to human rights
Our approach starts from our support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and from our belief that companies can and should play a constructive role in promoting these rights. It involves a clear commitment in our Business Principles, an understanding of the different responsibilities of governments and companies, and a range of practical efforts to help.
Our General Business Principles state that we will:
"respect the human rights of our employees..."
and
“…conduct business as responsible corporate members of society, to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to support fundamental human rights in line with the legitimate role of business…"
We look for practical ways to support human rights that are directly related to their business activities, and that encourage and help governments improve their human rights records.
Video "Shell and Human Rights"
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Featuring: Professor John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights; Dr Margaret Jungk, Business and Human Rights Project; and Mike Wilkinson, Vice President Sustainable Development, Royal Dutch Shell plc. Date: 10/12/2008 Length: 07:05 Related links: |
Spheres of action and responsibility
Over the past twenty years, society’s expectations of business in this area have grown. The boundary between the responsibilities of companies and those of governments is anything but clear. There is particular confusion about the role of companies when governments cannot or do not fulfil their human rights obligations.
Since 2000, we have being using the following diagram to help us understand our human rights role:
Our sphere of influence on human rights issues
View an accessible version of the diagram above.
To help us meet our responsibilities we:
- set a common approach to specific human rights issues;
- turn our commitment to human rights into training, tools and guidelines;
- incorporate human rights into our annual assurance letter from each operations or businesses to our Chief Executive; and
- support international declarations and conventions that have been developed to foster human rights.
We participated in a United Nations initiative - opens in new window to determine the boundaries of responsibility between companies and governments. We welcome the Special Representative’s final report, which came out in April 2008, and hope that it will be seriously considered by the UN Council on Human Rights in June. We are in broad agreement that issues related to human rights and business should be clarified. We do see similarities between Shell's current human rights approach and Professor Ruggie's views on Corporate Responsibility to Protect. With regards to the specific recommendation such as third party arbitration, Shell needs to further understand the implications, as well as consult with industry associations in which we are members.
See the final report "Protect, Respect and Remedy: a Framework for Business and Human Rights - opens in new window".
