Explains the background and the contents of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and how they relate to the broader human rights system and other frameworks. It aims to help both practitioners and newcomers to navigate the Guiding Principles and improve their understanding of the Guiding Principles by placing these in context.

Gender equality is both a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Yet, at the current rate of progress, it will take over 10 generations to close the economic gender gap. This 30-minute e-learning course will help you understand the role of business in advancing gender equality and the concrete steps that all companies can take to help accelerate the pace of change. By completing this session and related learning materials, you will learn: Why gender equality and women’s empowerment is a prerequisite to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. How your company can contribute to the achievement of SDG 5. How to build the business case for gender equality in your company. How the Women’s Empowerment Principles and other key frameworks, Tools and resources can support your business. -Concrete steps that your business can take to mainstream gender equality into strategy and operations.

Through the Target Gender Equality Newsletter, stories of action and impact across the globe are shared, featuring Global Compact companies and the individuals that are driving change within their organizations and beyond. The Newsletter also showcases the work of our Target Gender Equality Global Coalition member organizations that can further support business in advancing progress on gender equality. Sign up to future newsletter here.

This collection of case studies and business guidelines, compiled by Global Compact Local Networks across Africa, highlights how business and other partners are working to advance gender equality. Including company examples, as well as key resources and relevant gender-equality activities taking place at regional and local levels, this report hopes to inspire and challenge more companies to move from commitment to action and to play a leading role in ensuring that gender equality means business.

  Guides employers in implementing family-friendly policies that support parents and caregivers in their own operations and using their influence and leverage to promote such policies among business partners and within their supply chains.  Conditions of employment not only have a significant impact on the well-being of workers but also their children and families. Yet, for the hundreds of millions of workers in global supply chains, basic entitlements that provide them with the time, services and resources to support their families are widely absent. The large-scale business disruptions and the socioeconomic crisis resulting from COVID-19 have exacerbated the situation. Now, more than ever, family-friendly policies and practices are needed to support workers and their families during the crisis and beyond.

Examines how companies can navigate complex multi-tiered supply chains and their associated challenges as part of their efforts to advance decent work in their global supply chains. While multi-tier supply chains have the advantage of driving efficiency, reducing planning cycle lead times and reducing possible business disruptions, they also increase the risk of causing or contributing to human rights impacts and decent work deficits, particularly in the lower tiers of the chain. This is exacerbated in a crisis situation such as a pandemic, where workers’ rights and conditions may be compromised and income threatened as a result of order cancellations, factory shut-downs, or layoffs. This report seeks to guide multinational enterprises in reducing global supply chain vulnerabilities and provides proactive measures companies can take and best practice examples to draw inspiration from.

Provides guidance on the evolving business and human rights legal landscape and the consequent legal considerations that apply to multinational companies. Today, multinational companies must navigate increasingly complex human rights obligations, identify human rights risk in supply chains through due diligence, and take steps to mitigate such risks or make public disclosures. This topic is relevant to professionals tasked with embedding sustainability and human rights considerations in their business strategy. This report was developed by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP with input from the participants of the UN Global Compact Decent Work in Global Supply Chains Action Platform.

The black summer of 2019-2020 has seen the Australian landscape suffer unprecedented destruction. Climate change will continue to dramatically alter our environment, threatening political stability, degrading entire ecosystems, displacing whole communities and undermining business operations. To respond, businesses will need to undergo drastic transformations, embrace emerging economic opportunities and deeply embed principles of sustainability. Businesses no longer have the luxury of time. They must step away from a business as usual approach and reposition themselves as more responsible and sustainably savvy. In 2020, activism will continue to grow globally; lack of trust in both public and private institutions shows no signs of waning; investor pressures on businesses to perform better in matters of ESG will become more pointed; the gap between those that understand business ethics versus those that do not will grow; and the need for business leaders to set bolder human rights and environmental targets will become more pronounced. This report outlines the key pressures facing businesses in 2020, and what companies can do to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the challenges in our landscape to ensure their long-term viability. The opportunity for business to respond and lead the change is clear. How they choose to tackle these major pressures however will be both critical and defining.

The Decent Work Toolkit for Sustainable Procurement will enable companies, procurement professionals and suppliers to develop a common understanding on how to advance decent work through purchasing decisions and scaling up efforts to improve lives around the globe. With a focus on trust and transparency, the Decent Work Toolkit for Sustainable Procurement is publicly available to all and contains real-life examples of buyers and suppliers jointly addressing decent work concerns in global supply chains.

Provides the first ever estimates of child labour and human trafficking in global supply chains. A significant share of child labour and human trafficking in global supply chains occurs at lower tiers, in activities such as raw material extraction and agriculture, making due diligence, visibility and traceability challenging. The report outlines several key areas in which governments and businesses can do more. It underscores the critical role of States in addressing gaps in statutory legislation, enforcement, and access to justice and in establishing a framework for responsible business conduct. For business, the report underscores the need for a comprehensive, whole-of-supply-chain approach to due diligence.

The Framework for Corporate Action on Workplace Women's Health and Empowerment provides guidance for companies to take concrete actions to integrate women's health and empowerment in their policies, systems, and operations. The framework is based on lessons learned from consultations with companies, non-governmental organizations, and women's health programs in order to provide best practices for investing in workplace women's health and empowerment.  

Building on the original Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability published in 2015, Version 2.0 provides further guidance to General Counsel to ensure they are better placed and better equipped to drive change and deliver value to their organizations through an increased focus on corporate sustainability. Topics include: Corporate Sustainability and Business Integrity Corporate Sustainability and Business Integrity Human Rights and Supply Chain Due Diligence Corporate Sustainability and Grievance Mechanisms Challenges to Corporate Sustainability - Managing a Crisis Please fill out the form below to download the full guide.