How human rights are moving up the agenda for businesses, investors

Human rights problems lurking in supply chains — from child labor and unfair wages to unsafe working conditions — are moving up the ESG agenda for many companies and investors.

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we explore how the issue is evolving. One force behind this change is new legislation being rolled out that requires companies to identify, measure and tackle human rights risk related to their business activities. Another is a warming climate, and the way the physical impacts of climate change can affect societies and workers and disrupt the global flow of goods and services.

The human rights topic is also coming into sharper focus following the COVID-19 pandemic and amid instances of localized conflict in different parts of the world. Meanwhile, social media and other tech businesses face their own human rights issues, ranging from data privacy to hate speech.

In this episode, we talk with human rights experts from three organizations: asset manager Robeco, law firm Clifford Chance, and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a U.K.-based nonprofit.

We'd love to hear from you. To give us feedback on this episode or share ideas for future episodes, please contact hosts Lindsey Hall (lindsey.hall@spglobal.com) and Esther Whieldon (esther.whieldon@spglobal.com).

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