Tools and processes

Human rights engagement is an open-ended process which involves changes in basic corporate practice. Novartis endeavors to apply human rights due diligence in all aspects of its operations.

In order to become aware of, prevent and address adverse human rights impacts, Novartis analyzes the context in which its business activities take place, identifies the impacts of its activities, and considers whether these might contribute to human rights abuse. A number of tools aid us in this process.

Human Rights Compliance Assessment
At Novartis, a particularly useful support for internal learning has been the Human Rights Compliance Assessment (HRCA) tool developed by the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). This web-based tool benchmarks business human rights compliance against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and over 80 other major treaties and International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions.

In 2006, Novartis Turkey first piloted HRCA. Performance was assessed according to 194 human rights questions with an associated 860 indicators, grouped into nine functional areas ranging from human resources and product safety to legal affairs and external relations. The HRCA tool was used to carry out a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of human rights performance in Novartis Turkey.

Among the main contributions of the Turkish pilot project in refining the methodology was to highlight the importance of local ownership of the assessment process. In addition, it identified concrete compliance risks and opportunities for the promotion of human rights on issues ranging from overtime by on-site third party employees, to limitations on wearing a head scarf or praying during working hours.

In 2007, HCRA was extended to Novartis Taiwan. Again, no major abuses were uncovered, but some areas of improvement included equal benefits for ‘non-traditional’ families, employee representation and grievance mechanisms and privacy issues in 3^rd party hiring procedures.

In 2008, Novartis South Africa conducted the HCRA self-assessment to further improve the methodology, using several small assessment groups. As before, no major abuses were uncovered, but the level of comfort with the topic of human rights grew substantially through identifying opportunities to enhance access for disabled people, flexible arrangements for those with family responsibilities, adequate compensation for clinical trials participants or privacy protection for employees and customers.

For Novartis, use of the HCRA tool has been valuable in helping to identify relevant human rights issues and instilling a human rights-aware approach across the organization. The next country unit to apply the tool is expected to be China in 2009.

Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights
In addition to piloting the HCRA, through the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, Novartis is a founding member of the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a program initiated in 2003 to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights.

BLIHR has been finding practical ways to apply human rights aspirations within a business context, notably through its Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Management. This includes a Matrix Tool for mapping corporate activities in this area and setting priorities for improvement.

Within BLIHR, Novartis has concentrated efforts specifically on management tools and online human rights analysis and training, as well as wider engagement on sphere of influence issues facing the pharmaceutical sector.

Visit the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) website

Learn more on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Visit the International Labor Organization (ILO) website

Discover the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development

Learn more on the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR)

Download the Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Management
(343 KB)

Download the Matrix Tool
(267 KB)

 

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