In terms of human rights, 2023 marks a turning point for European duty of care. Cited in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the duty of care is an obligation on multinational companies to behave responsibly by preventing the actual and potential negative impacts of their activities. In 2023, MEPs will strengthen this obligation by making companies with more than 250 employees and a turnover of €40 million eligible for this European directive. Faced with this tightening of the law, the market is increasingly regulated, and companies and investors are faced with the challenge of compliance.
the challenge
Our client is specialized in the promotion of private equity. Through its activities, it enables institutional investors and private savers to support developing companies and finance infrastructure with a positive impact on society. Our client considers social and environmental issues at the heart of their investment strategies, particularly on the subject of human rights.
Ksapa helped this association and its members to understand the challenges of respecting and promoting human rights.
OUR APPROACH
To do so, Ksapa is actively contributing its expertise to the “Sustainability of the value chain” working group, which brings together 14 funds.
This working group has made is possible to:
- Discuss obstacles and objectives in the area of human rights, based on concrete examples
- Gain a better understanding of regulations and standards relating to human rights issues in the value chain
- Learn how to integrate the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals into their investment strategy
- To have at their disposal a tool tailored to the private business equity business that will enable them to adopt new reflexes, draw up action plans and change practices on sustainability issues.
The guiding principles of this working group are to facilitate understanding of human rights issues and to make a complex subject accessible.
RESULTS & NEXT STEPS
This working group on sustainability in the value chain, split into several sessions, gave members a more precise and comprehensive view of human rights issues. The work, which had already involved an initial cycle of collaborative exchanges, culminated in the open-sourcing of a common teaching tool to ensure that human rights are respected throughout the ecosystem of the members of the working group.
This mission is helping to accelerate the shift by investors and companies towards fairer and more sustainable practices. Human rights issues are one of the priority challenges of the 2030 SDGs, and every market player is subject to regulations and standards.
Finally, the working group has provided a good basis for the social and environmental dimensions of the private equity sector, but members are advised to update the tool annually.
