Human Rights brings Empowerment

To Deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity is the famous quote from Nelson Mandela and the manifestation of human rights is prevalent in every walk of life and impacts every individual. To #respect and #embrace the articles of the Human Rights is not only specific to overall #bestpractices in #humanity but also to incorporate principles of #humanrights into #organizationalpolicies and #programs .

As an HR practitioner whose passion is all about enabling and empowering people so that they can unleash their potential, it was a wonderful experience for me to pursue this education and training. Grateful to @USIDHR US Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights for a very structured program and training that is very well delivered and is extremely impactful.

After the training, I have been utilizing the knowledge in several of my coaching interactions and my consulting work involving advisory on teams and the engagement of team members. It was a rewarding experience discussing with a leader I have been coaching recently that #article8 which is Right to be treated fair is something he should consider for an employee in his team who he thinks is completely written off and has serious performance issues. It was his sheer frustration as to why he should tolerate non performance and be NICE to this team member and keep providing her with repeated opportunities to show case her talent when she has continuously failed in her intent and outcome. Another great experience I had in my DEIB advisory role recently, was to assist a client organization with #article#19 which is about Freedom of opinion and expression and work with them on ensuring that employees of all departments, functions across all levels are provided with the #psychologicalsafety on providing their opinion and expressing their thoughts on various policies, programs and general discussions that they participate in on a day to day basis. and ensure #article#2 is protected which talks about No discrimination. It is a very rewarding experience to remind our people partners on the Human rights principles and the UDHR articles to help ensure that people in the organization who come with #Diverse background feel that they are treated with #equity and their #inclusion and #belongingness is nurtured and cherished. #article#30 which refers to Human rights cant be taken away is also protected here.

I have been part of several discussions in the past about the need for a Human Rights policy at every organization.

All organizations have the privilege and the obligation to respect human rights, which means to avoid infringing on the human rights of others and to address these impacts where they occur. Respecting human rights is the right thing to do and essentially organizations that respect human rights earn and secure their ‘social license to operate’, and avoid potentially expensive company-community conflicts and also protect the interests of their own employees which is the biggest managerial obligation.

Organizations that respect human rights are better positioned to anticipate and manage operational and regulatory risks, and are well poised to comply with future legal and regulatory requirements. They also may gain commercial benefits associated with good human rights practices, e.g., attracting investment, procurement, top-quality recruits and reputational benefits.

In recent times, human rights is becoming a greater focus for customers and they decipher as to who they choose to do business with. Many recent NGO campaigns have focused on consumer concerns about, improving respect for human rights in supply chains or the human rights elements of environmental impacts. The effective venue for enforcing the corporate responsibility to respect human rights is not the courtroom but the boardroom. Utilizing Human Rights due diligence has helped major organizations by attracting the right investors and private equity funding. Investment that favours good environmental, social and corporate governance is expanding.

Organizations have the moral responsibility to ensure that principles of Human rights is well manifested in their basic mission statement, strategy, goals, values, HR policies, DEIB approach and anything else relating to people and their very existence as employees while doing their jobs and achieving their goals while contributing to the organizational success.

Some of the key articles from the UDHR are highlighted below, which I think has direct impact on organizational culture, values and HR policies amongst other direct and indirect outcomes.

1. All human beings are free and equal

2. No discrimination

3. Right to life

4. No slavery

5. No torture and inhuman treatment

6. Same right to use law

7. Equal before the law

8. Right to treated fair by court

9. No unfair detainment

10. Right to trial

11. Innocent until proved guilty

12. Right to privacy

13. Freedom to movement and residence

14. Right to asylum

15. Right to nationality

16. Rights to marry and have family

17. Right to own things

18. Freedom of thought and religion

19. Freedom of opinion and expression

20. Right to assemble

21. Right to democracy

22. Right to social security

23. Right to work

24. Right to rest and holiday

25. Right of social service

26. Right to education

27. Right of cultural and art

28. Freedom around the world

29. Subject to law

30. Human rights can’t be taken away

Developing a Human Rights policy can be a dynamic, though not always a predictable process. It might not be a perfect process at the beginning. But then, the intent is most important here. Policies can be revised as they get utilized and new things can get added or edited.

Some of the key success factors to having a sustainable and dynamic Human Right Policy is the ensure the following tenets are followed:

a. Senior management to drive the process

b. Establish a cross functional team to establish a vision and purpose

c. Identify expertise from within and outside

d. Map existing policies to identify human rights coverage and gaps

e. Establish potential impacts

f. Consult with key stake holders

g. Communicate the policy internally and externally

h. Ensure Human Rights Policy is implemented through operational policies, procedures, values, mission, vision and other people policies

i. Update the policy every 2-3 years as new developments take place

Let us commit ourselves to successfully #practicing #humanrights in the #workplace