We recognise our responsibility to operate with respect to human rights. Everybody deserves to be treated equally, and with respect and dignity. For us at H&M Group, respecting human rights is also about leading with our values and empowering people to be who they want to be.
Human rights policy
Our committment
At H&M Group, we are committed to operating with respect to human rights across our value chain – in our own operations, across our supply chains and in the communities where we operate. It’s about what we do, and how we do it.
This commitment is set out in our Human Rights Policy and applies to all entities within the H&M Group. The policy gives an overview of our priorities, key stakeholders, accountability and how we implement our commitment. We base our approach on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
We adopted our first Human Rights Policy in 2012 and over the last decade our strategies have evolved. We have learnt along the way and our business model and the context in which we operate have also changed. It is against this backdrop that we reviewed and updated our Human Rights Policy in 2020.
Governance
Our Board of Directors has adopted this Human Rights Policy on behalf of H&M Group. They have delegated the responsibility to implement the policy to senior operational executives that report to our CEO. The Head of Sustainability and Head of Corporate Governance oversee the overall implementation and report on progress and impact to the Board of Directors and the leadership team on a regular basis.
We focus our efforts on our salient human rights issues and we apply a risk-based approach. Every year we review our salient human rights issues with internal and external stakeholders to ensure their relevance and to prioritise efforts and engagement. Different functions and geographies carry out human rights risk and impact assessments, the outcomes of which form part of our corporate risk process.
Read more about Our Approach to human rights management.