Women’s rights: a blind spot in due diligence

It all started in a modest conference room eight years ago. Just one year later, the Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi was guest speaker. This much is sure: ABN AMRO’s annual Human Rights Conference has taken off since the first time it was held back in 2014.

“The bank has been consulting with a number of stakeholders for years,” says Wijbrand Fabius, Stakeholder & Engagement Manager at ABN AMRO. “We’ve seen a growing emphasis on human rights and the responsibility of businesses and companies in their supply chains. The theme started to register more and more on our radar. And that’s how the Human Rights Conference came into being.”

Respecting human rights

The initiator of the bank’s human rights programme is Maria Anne van Dijk. Listening to stakeholders’ stories, she became convinced that the bank, in its capacity as an investment service provider and lender to thousands of business enterprises throughout the world, has a duty to respect human rights. Maria Anne then invited colleagues, corporate players, NGOs and specialists in and outside the bank’s network to meet to reflect together on the role of the bank when it comes to respecting human rights.

The 2021 Human Rights Conference took place on 10 December and was held online for the first time as a result of the Covid-19 measures in place. With over 450 sign-ups, the event attracted a great deal of interest. This year’s theme was “Women’s rights due diligence in global supply chains”. Due diligence is the process whereby a company evaluates a range of risks. Human rights due diligence, for example, helps businesses identify the human rights risks they face as a result of their own activities and those of their business partners, like suppliers and customers. Unfortunately, women’s rights are an all-too-common blind spot when it comes to the due diligence and engagement processes implemented by many companies, including the bank. These processes are often unintentionally aimed more at improving the circumstances of men than of women.

A right to non-discrimination

“We always bring human rights to our clients’ attention, asking how they’re safeguarded within the organisation and in the chain,” says Business & Human Rights Advisor Yuri Herder. “In terms of women’s rights, you have to go one level deeper – it’s all about the fundamental right to non-discrimination. This requires us to look at the due diligence process through a gender lens, since human rights violations are not gender-neutral, with women being disproportionately affected. Just imagine the impact of an employer shifting working hours from daytime to evening. The impact on, say, a woman working in a factory in Bangladesh, for whom it may be unsafe to walk the streets after dark, is very different from the impact on a man. Then there’s the question of being able to keep your job if you get pregnant. For many women in the world today, that’s not necessarily a given.”

Yuri continues, “In line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, every business enterprise is responsible for carrying out human rights due diligence. A component of that responsibility is the right to non-discrimination. Since due diligence is set to become a legal requirement for businesses operating in the EU market in 2022, it’s even more important that they get the ball rolling now.”

Listening is key

The 10 December online conference consisted of opening remarks by ABN AMRO’s CEO Robert Swaak, interviews and a number of panel discussions. Participants included Signify, Hunkemöller, Oxfam Novib, the Dutch Trade Union Confederation (FNV), Shift, EOS at Federated Hermes and financial institutions like the Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) and NN Investment Partners. The MEP Lara Wolters and Pascalle Grotenhuis, ambassador for human rights and gender equality at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also contributed.

“I’m proud that we organise conferences like this,” Wijbrand says. “Feedback from participants shows that the bank is ahead of the pack thanks to its role in hosting events like this. I should stress that our job here is mainly to listen and learn. We facilitate discussion and provide the platform, but we mostly let the others do the talking. After all, the bank doesn’t have a monopoly on the answers.”

In 2022, ABN AMRO will be joining forces with other banks to implement gender-specific due diligence in the organisation. Despite the importance of talking and listening, actions do speak louder than words. Yuri says, “That was actually the most important conclusion of the conference. The subject is complex, but the main thing is to make a start. It’s about beginning the process by looking at supply chains, identifying human rights issues and looking at all this through a gender lens: are women affected differently?” Wijbrand concludes, “It’s also important to work together with NGOs, trade unions and government, and enlist expertise where necessary. Sharing knowledge and experience by collaborating with others and reporting on progress is essential for bringing about real change.”