Margaret Jungk, Ph.D.

Director, Human Rights and Business Department
Danish Institute for Human Rights

In 2010, HP commissioned the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) to conduct an assessment of HP's potential human rights impacts and an analysis of HP's existing policies. The research was led by DIHR with the support of Business for Social Responsibility.

High-level policies in HP contain clear commitments to human rights, and in critical areas the company has taken a proactive stance. HP is an industry leader in the area of Privacy and Data Protection (PDP). And through the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, HP has helped put human rights on the industry agenda.

In its recommendations to HP, DIHR identified risk mitigation actions and leadership opportunities across four areas: employee rights, supply chain, products and customers, and environmental impact. Key challenges relate to speeding up progress on supply chain labour standards and preventing the use of HP products to limit privacy and freedom of expression.

So far, only very few multinational companies have done an enterprise-wide human rights assessment. To further galvanize its leadership position, HP now has the opportunity to systematically embed human rights in policy, technical, and commercial decisions across all functions and markets.