The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) began in 2003 for an initial three year period to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. We set ourselves the objective of finding ‘practical ways of applying the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise’.
As a member of BLIHR, we believe in an evidence-based approach considering the application and testing of human rights across a number of business sectors and geographic locations. We acknowledge that there are some real and perceptual roadblocks that business perceives when trying to operationalise human rights in their work and the initiative aims to help businesses overcome these through developing tools and signposting the work of others.
The Initiative was founded by seven companies: ABB Ltd, Barclays plc, MTV Networks Europe, National Grid plc, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, Novo Nordisk and The Body Shop International plc. During 2004, Hewlett-Packard Company, Statoil and Gap Inc. joined the initiative.
At the end of the initial three-year phase of the initiative, we agreed with the other members that there was still much to be done in this area and still the need for further understanding of the issues and practical tools for business.
During the second three-year period from 2006 to 2009, five new companies have joined BLIHR; Alcan, Areva, Coca-Cola, GE and Ericsson.
The reasons why National Grid joined BLIHR
In May 2003 (prior to the launch of BLIHR), National Grid published its Public Position Statement on Human Rights.
Most of the human right issues covered by the position statement were already implemented through pre-existing Company-wide policies and procedures as well as through employee and community-related programmes and initiatives. However, two –covering human rights in the supply chain management and managing indigenous peoples rights – were not fully developed. We also wanted to enhance its existing risk management processes by identifying and understanding the areas where we might be exposed to human rights risks, thereby minimising the chances of accidental complicity in the future, for instance, when developing new business in emerging markets.
It was to achieve improvements in these areas that prompted National Grid to become a founding member of BLIHR and to commit to continuing for a further three years. We also recognise that we still have much to learn in other areas through interaction with companies from different sectors that were experiencing similar issues
The advantages of working across different business sectors and different geographic regions
National Grid’s membership of BLIHR brings benefits in a number of ways.
- Membership of BLIHR has facilitated exposure to legal and other thinking in both Europe and the US, and this has led to National Grid contributing in fora that it may otherwise not have been party to in its own right (given its size and geographical spread) and provided a platform to contribute to standards and guideline developments that may impact on its future operations.
- Working with the other BLIHR members has also engendered a greater understanding of common key issues and, as a result, allowed for the development of tools and methodologies that are applicable to all sectors.
- The network provides access to expertise, shared learning and peer support that is not normally available to an individual company.