Our approach to respecting human rights

Our commitment includes all internationally recognised human rights stated in the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We are guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in how we understand and apply our responsibility to respect human rights. Our approach also considers children’s and women’s rights as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Policy integration: Our commitment to operating with respect in line with international standards is reflected in our corporate-level Human Rights Policy and in operational-level policies and guidelines, which help us act with accountability and fulfill our obligations in practice.

Key operational-level policies include our Sustainability Commitment, which sets out our requirements for suppliers and business partners to respect human rights and the environment and to ensure good working conditions; our global Social Policies, which are the equivalent for our internal operations; and our Material Ethics Policy.

Guidelines that further support our teams and business partners in respecting human rights in their daily work include, but are not limited to, our Guideline for Responsible Recruitment of Migrant Workers, which sets out expectations related to fair recruitment of migrant workers, and our Child Labour Case Handling Guideline, which provides guidance on how suspected or confirmed cases of child labour should be handled.

Governance and culture: Responsibility for implementing our commitment to operating with respect for human rights is anchored at the highest level of our company. Our Board of Directors has adopted this Human Rights Policy on behalf of H&M Group and has delegated responsibility for its implementation to senior operational executives who report to the CEO.

The Head of Sustainability and the Head of Corporate Governance oversee overall implementation and report regularly on progress and impact to the Board of Directors and the leadership team. Work to further develop reporting and governance, and to integrate human rights management in an effective and meaningful way, is ongoing.

A strong culture is an essential part of our approach. One of H&M Group’s core values is “believe in people”, and a key aspect of our corporate governance has always been trusting our colleagues to make the right decisions. Raising awareness and embedding respect for human rights in our culture and values requires providing colleagues with appropriate training and the right tools.

Training and awareness-raising: Raising awareness and building understanding of what it means to operate with respect for human rights is key to effective integration. We provide basic human rights training across our business, tailoring content for different functions and roles. The training includes a basic introduction to human rights, an outline of our responsibilities in line with the UNGPs, and key aspects of effective implementation. In-depth training and workshops are targeted at key staff and cover specific topics such as forced labour and the application of remedy logic. A similar approach is applied to suppliers and business partners.

Policy integration: Our Human Rights Policy sets out H&M Group’s approach to respecting human rights in line with international standards. It is supported by operational-level policies and guidelines, which help translate this approach into expectations and ways of working across relevant parts of the business.

Key operational-level policies include our Sustainability Commitment, which sets out our requirements for suppliers and business partners regarding human rights, the environment and working conditions; our global Social Policies, which are the equivalent for our internal operations; and our Material Ethics Policy.

Guidelines that further support our teams and business partners in respecting human rights in their daily work include, but are not limited to, our Guideline for Responsible Recruitment of Migrant Workers, which sets out expectations related to fair recruitment of migrant workers, and our Child Labour Case Handling Guideline, which provides guidance on how suspected or confirmed cases of child labour should be handled.

Governance and culture: Responsibility for integrating respect for human rights into business practices is anchored at the highest level of our company. Our Board of Directors has adopted this Human Rights Policy on behalf of H&M Group and has delegated responsibility for its implementation to senior operational executives who report to the CEO.
The Head of Sustainability and the Head of Corporate Governance oversee overall implementation and report regularly to the Board of Directors and the leadership team on progress, risks and relevant indicators. Work to further develop reporting and governance, and to integrate human rights management in an effective and meaningful way, is ongoing.

Culture is an important part of our approach. One of H&M Group’s core values is “believe in people”, and a key aspect of our corporate governance has always been trusting our colleagues to make informed decisions. Raising awareness and embedding respect for human rights in our culture and values requires providing colleagues with appropriate training and the right tools.

Training and awareness-raising: Raising awareness and building understanding of what it means to operate with respect for human rights is key to effective integration. We provide basic human rights training across our business, tailoring content for different functions and roles. The training includes a basic introduction to human rights, an outline of our responsibilities in line with the UNGPs, and key aspects of effective implementation. In-depth training and workshops are targeted at key staff and cover specific topics such as forced labour and the application of remedy logic. A similar approach is applied to relevant suppliers and business partners, based on role, context and risk.

Human rights due diligence: We conduct human rights due diligence across our value chain, adjusted to operational context and risk, business relationships, and the nature of our involvement with an impact. Our process is continuous and develops as we incorporate learnings and input from stakeholders and experts.

Salient human rights impacts: Our efforts are focused on our salient human rights issues. These are the issues that present the risk of the most severe negative impacts on people across our value chain. They include wages, child labour, forced labour, modern slavery, and rights to water and sanitation. We regularly review our salient human rights issues together with internal and external stakeholders to ensure their relevance and to define prioritised efforts and engagement.

Special attention is given to vulnerable groups who are more exposed to violations, including women, children and migrant workers.

Risk and impact assessment: We conduct human rights impact assessments across our value chain to identify risks to people, including, but not limited to, risks related to new markets, suppliers and materials. As a global business, with a retail and production presence in over 80 markets, the same approach cannot be applied uniformly across all contexts. That is why we apply a risk-based approach to our due diligence process.

We target high-risk regions, functions and processes that require the closest attention. We also work with suppliers and business partners to clarify expectations, build leverage and support the identification and handling of potential and actual human rights issues in the supply chain.

Acting on identified risks: We take action to prevent and reduce human rights risks by focusing on where risks are most likely to occur and where the potential impact on people could be most severe. What we do depends on the issue, the local context, the business relationship and how we may be connected to the impact. Actions include supplier assessments and monitoring, training and outreach, communication of policies, grievance and incident management, capacity-building, engagement with business partners and collaboration with external stakeholders. We use learnings and stakeholder feedback to develop our approach over time.

In many markets where we operate, certain human rights issues are systemic. Tackling these requires collaboration with other actors, and we encourage collective efforts with peers, business partners, governments and non-governmental organisations. Our work on wages is an example of an issue that is systemic and requires action from different actors.

We also engage in public affairs on topics related to regulatory effectiveness and the role of governments in protecting human rights in the countries where we operate.

Stakeholder engagement: Throughout the process, we strive to engage with those whose human rights might be affected, including colleagues, workers in our supply chain, customers and communities, or with their relevant representatives such as unions or NGOs, to receive valuable input. We continuously invite stakeholders to provide feedback on our efforts so that we can further improve our strategies and programmes.

For systemic issues, or issues further upstream in our supply chain, where our influence is limited, we join forces with a broader range of stakeholders, including peers, suppliers and business partners, NGOs and expert organisations, to address shared human rights and environmental challenges in the industry.

Reporting and communication: Reporting on risks and outcomes is carried out both to inform decision-making and to evaluate and adjust our approach for effectiveness. Human rights reporting is one aspect of our corporate governance, and we work to develop reporting that supports decision-making, follow-up and accountability.

We communicate and report on progress and challenges through various channels, including our annual and sustainability report. Over the years, we have built long-term business relationships with many of our manufacturing suppliers and were one of the first brands to make our supplier list public in 2013.

We strongly believe that transparency and partnership improve accountability and drive progress. Over the years, our work on human rights management and modern slavery risk has been assessed in benchmarks such as the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark and KnowTheChain.

Despite the best intentions and efforts, incidents and grievances will occur across our value chain. We are committed to supporting channels and processes such as grievance mechanisms through which people can raise issues and seek remedy.

These mechanisms and processes for reporting issues are an important aspect of our ongoing human rights due diligence and our strategic focus on promoting workers’ voices and industrial relations in our markets. Enabling people to speak up is one important part of supporting respect for human rights and good working conditions.

Grievance mechanisms: Our ambition is for grievances to be managed as close to the issue as possible. We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who, in good faith, reports a grievance or participates in the investigation of a grievance in our own operations or across our supply chain.

Our internal Grievance Policy aims to ensure that employees within H&M Group have a channel for raising grievances, as well as access to an efficient procedure for handling violations of, or grievances related to, our social policies. This includes providing a supportive and open atmosphere where employees feel comfortable raising issues directly with their managers or peers, as well as providing a company-level channel through which colleagues can escalate issues. Similarly, our corporate Speak-up! channel allows eligible stakeholders to raise grievances or concerns related to human rights impacts connected to H&M Group activities and business relationships.

Our requirements for suppliers and business partners include the establishment of operational-level grievance mechanisms. We also recognise the importance of human rights defenders, including union representatives, in bringing attention to issues. We expect our suppliers and business partners not to hinder the work of human rights defenders or retaliate against anyone who raises an issue.

For our manufacturing supply chain, we follow up on the presence of operational-level grievance channels through our monitoring programmes. One of the strategic focus areas within our social sustainability work is to strengthen workers’ voices. We encourage and support the establishment of democratically elected worker representatives, and we work with our suppliers and unions to support industrial relations.

In key production markets, and as part of our framework agreement with the global union federation IndustriALL and IF Metall, we have established National Monitoring Committees (NMCs) in collaboration with local union representatives to, among other things, receive grievances and support the resolution of escalated issues.

Incident management: In situations that may involve human rights impacts, we assess each case through our incident management process, including our role in relation to remedy under the UNGPs’ remedy framework. This includes considering whether the issue is connected to our own activities, business relationships or parts of the supply chain where we do not have direct business relationships.

Human rights incidents at supplier factories are handled in line with our incident management processes. For severe non-compliances with our Sustainability Commitment, this may include issuing Letters of Concern (a non-disciplinary letter that precedes a formal disciplinary action). We use monitoring programmes to follow up on identified issues, assess progress and inform further action.