Documenting respect for human rights

This report provides a ‘snapshot’ analysis of the human rights policies and self-reported human rights due diligence practices of 30 of the largest Danish companies for the 2021 reporting period. The companies are all headquartered in Denmark and all have global operations and global value chains.

As is the case for all other business entities, these companies have the responsibility to respect human rights. This entails maintaining an awareness of their actual and potential negative impacts on human rights and publicly demonstrating what they are doing to avoid and address them.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the global authoritative standard on business and human rights, define the concept of “corporate responsibility to respect human rights” which includes undertaking corporate human rights due diligence.

This snapshot takes a closer look at the degree to which some of the largest Danish companies currently document their efforts to meet this standard. The snapshot aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on how businesses can better respect human rights.