Human Rights Operations
Human rights are a fundamental component of social sustainability management, emphasizing respect for and protection of everyone's rights throughout business operations. This includes the rights of employees, customers, stakeholders, and local communities where the business operates.
Comprehensive human rights due diligence is a process used to assess and manage human rights risks that arise or may arise from business activities across the supply chain. It covers all relevant stakeholders, including at-risk and vulnerable groups. This due diligence focuses on prevention and remediation to minimize adverse impacts, in alignment with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which are based on three key pillars: “Protect, Respect, and Remedy”
Human Rights Due Diligence Process (HRDD)
The company conducts a comprehensive human rights due diligence process to assess the status of operations across the entire value chain. This enables the identification, prevention, mitigation, and management of actual or potential human rights impacts arising from business operations. The process follows the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Human Rights Due Diligence Guidelines for Listed Companies issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC). These guidelines serve as a framework for conducting comprehensive human rights due diligence, which is scheduled to be carried out every two years.
The process includes the following steps:
1. Defining the Scope of Assessment
The company has clearly defined the scope of its comprehensive human rights due diligence process to cover all relevant stakeholders, including at-risk and vulnerable groups such as children, persons with disabilities, women, minorities, migrants, third-party contract workers, indigenous peoples, local communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, the elderly, and pregnant women. This assessment applies to all operational areas where the company conducts business or has management control, as well as stakeholders within the supply chain.
The company considers key human rights issues, including labor rights, community and minority rights, supply chain rights, security and safety, environmental protection, and the rights of customers and consumers.
2. Identifying Relevant Human Rights Issues
The company reviews various human rights risk issues across the entire value chain, including both direct activities conducted by the company and indirect activities through business partners, contractors, or joint ventures that may lead to human rights violations. Additionally, the company analyzes human rights trends within the same industry at a global level and categorizes similar issues to develop and update the comprehensive Human Rights Risk Assessment checklist.
Relevant departments are assigned to identify and assess potential human rights risks arising from business operations, ensuring a thorough evaluation of human rights impacts.
The scope of the company's human rights risk and impact assessment
| Labor Rights | Local Community and Indigenous Rights | Supply Chain Rights | Security and Safety Rights | Environmental Rights | Customers and consumers Rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Human Rights Risk Assessment
The company incorporates human rights risk issues identified in the comprehensive Human Rights Due Diligence checklist as a tool for risk assessment. A Risk Matrix is used as the assessment tool, considering the risk level of impacts and the likelihood criteria of occurrence for each human rights issue.
Figure 1: Prioritization of Human Rights Risk Issues
Risk level
The assessment of risk levels and human rights impacts is divided into four levels: low risk, medium risk, high risk, and very high risk.
Likelihood
The likelihood assessment is a criterion used alongside risk level to assist evaluators in decision-making. The likelihood assessment criteria are divided into the following levels: low, medium, high, and very high likelihood.
The relevant departments have been assigned to conduct a comprehensive human rights due diligence risk assessment, covering the business operations of the group of companies, accounting for 100% of the operational areas.
The results of the comprehensive human rights due diligence assessment in the company's business operations identified one risk issue as follows:
Environmental rights risk
A risk was identified in the area of pollution management from operations, which may have environmental impacts on the communities surrounding the factory. The assessment results indicate a medium-level risk.
4. Establishing impact mitigation and prevention measures.
The company has established preventive and mitigation measures based on the human rights risk assessment to serve as guidelines for reducing and controlling negative impacts to a low or acceptable level.
The company has prepared preventive measures and impact mitigation measures as follows:
| Risk issue | Potential risk characteristics | Preventive and mitigation measures |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
5. Monitoring and reviewing human rights performance.
The company has established key performance indicators to monitor and review measures for mitigating and controlling negative impacts from human rights risks across all identified issues. These include metrics such as the number of complaints received and resolution status. The results are regularly reported to management for review to ensure that each human rights risk issue is effectively addressed and prevented.
Additionally, as human rights issues may evolve due to changes in business activities and stakeholder expectations, the company conducts regular reviews of its human rights practices. This includes identifying and assessing human rights risks, implementing mitigation and prevention measures, and ensuring that grievance mechanisms are available for employees and stakeholders in cases of human rights violations related to the company's business activities. These efforts aim to facilitate continuous improvement and ensure the effectiveness of the company's human rights management processes.
6. Remediation and corrective actions.
The company recognizes the importance of conducting business with respect for human rights. Therefore, it has established remediation measures and compensation mechanisms for those who may be affected by human rights impacts resulting from its operations. Additionally, the company conducts lesson-learned reviews to develop preventive measures to avoid recurrence. These actions are reviewed and approved through a structured decision-making process by management to ensure accountability, build stakeholder confidence, and uphold the company’s commitments.