A human rights approach for business action
Sancroft helped a leading financial services infrastructure provider to proactively manage human rights risks within its value chain.
Our client, a leading financial services infrastructure provider, recognised a growing need to address potential human rights risks within their extensive and complex operations and value chain. With substantial influence in the financial services sector, our client faced challenges related to human rights risks that had not yet been fully addressed.
Our client sought Sancroft’s support to assess their position on human rights relative to industry best practices, as well as to create companywide understanding and buy-in for how human rights issues intersect with colleagues’ roles. Their objective was to develop a comprehensive human rights approach that would both mitigate risks and future-proof their business against emerging challenges.
Sancroft adopted a structured process to identify and prioritise the client’s most salient human rights issues.
Our initial step focused on building a deep understanding of the client’s complex operations. This was achieved through extensive document reviews, targeted interviews with key personnel, and collaborative team discussions. These engagements provided insight into the client’s known human rights risks across their value chain.
Building on this understanding, we applied the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) to frame our analysis. We also conducted a sector-specific benchmarking exercise to identify best practices and highlight the roles and responsibilities of market leaders.
To assess salience, we evaluated identified risks against key factors of severity: scale, scope, irremediability, and likelihood. We worked with our client to align our approach with their double materiality assessment which was being undertaken simultaneously.
Our findings were shared with wider teams to ensure comprehensive understanding across business divisions. This inclusive engagement ensured each team understood the business’s exposure to human rights risks and the specific recommendations tailored to their responsibilities. Clear guidance was provided to embed these insights into strategic planning and day-to-day operations.
Our work delivered:
- A structured, comparable framework for assessing the severity of human rights risks across a complex value chain.
- Informative and engaging discussions within the client’s teams that fostered a deeper understanding of connections to potential harms and reinforced accountability for risk management.
- A clear foundation for aligning future actions with the client’s human rights ambitions.
Reportable insights to support alignment with the UNGPs and improve ESG performance.
By establishing this clear framework and encouraging collaboration across teams, our work empowered the client to proactively manage human rights risks, enhancing both resilience and leadership in their sector.