A business perspective

Human rights apply to all people throughout the world. They should guarantee everyone a life in freedom and dignity. This is a fundamental ethical precept as well as an essential precondition for political stability and sustainable economic and social development. Nurturing the conditions under which people feel secure and can prosper is in the interest of companies with international operations.

Respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the state and the international community. No company, however open or prosperous, is able and authorized to assume the duties of government - but we can and are willing to serve as a complement.

Over the past six years, through internal and external discussions with a great variety of experts and civil society groups, Novartis has been refining its thinking on how to best support human rights objectives.

By far the most significant contribution Novartis can make is in the context of its normal business activities - through the discovery and development of effective medicines.

Producing life-saving medicines at high quality and making them available through markets, while obeying all laws, paying our taxes and providing our employees with safe workplaces and competitive wages are essential contributions toward society.

In its strategic choices and in the conduct of its business activities, Novartis adopts a 'rights-aware' approach - namely we accept that our stakeholders have universal rights and that decisions made by our company should strive to respect these.

We use a three-level concept to classify our human rights responsibilities. At the first level are 'essential' compliance requirements with for instance the elimination of forced or child labor or the individual right to security. As well as abiding by these obligations - usually enshrined in national law - we believe that multinational companies also have a moral obligation to maintain high standards wherever we operate, regardless of the quality of local legislation. Therefore our second level human rights responsibilities include those which can reasonably be 'expected' by society. Finally, third level responsibilities refer to a corporate human rights engagement that is 'desirable,' particularly through philanthropic activities.

Any human rights strategy should align the 'essential,' 'expected' and 'desirable' action of a company. It makes no sense for a business to take desirable actions to address a human rights concern, such as providing charitable donations, if it is not already demonstrating its essential and expected action in the same area.

In addition to the societal benefits created by better human rights governance, there are core business benefits for Novartis in adopting a 'rights-aware' approach which outweigh any costs we may incur. Among these are reduced legal, financial and reputational risks, a reinforced license to operate and better motivated employees. Showing leadership on human rights also improves our valuation by ethical investment funds, makes us a more attractive business partner and demonstrates the effectiveness of self-regulation.

 

Related links:

A guide for integrating human rights into business management, Business Leaders' Initiative on Human Rights ›