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Celebrating a decade of progress on human rights
This June marks the 10-year anniversary of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the internationally recognized framework that defines the business responsibility to respect human rights. Along with bringing disruption to global supply chains, the global health pandemic also put the human rights of supply chain workers at unprecedented risk. At the same time, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing new human rights risks to the forefront, including discrimination from algorithmic bias, data privacy concerns, and threats to freedom of expression.
HPE was an early adopter of the UNGPs ten years ago, and today, we continue to recognize these principles throughout our operations and value chain. Although respect for human rights is embedded across all areas of our business, this milestone affords us the opportunity to reflect on our progress and look ahead to the future.
Here are a few of the initiatives that HPE is most proud of:
1. Developing the industry’s first Foreign Migrant Worker Standard
Did you know:
- HPE prohibits the use of any form of forced labor, including all recruitment fees throughout its supply chain and expects its suppliers do the same.
- We require remedy for forced labor by working with the supplier to assess the extent of fees paid, consult with workers, establish a corrective action plan and reimbursement plan, and repay recruitment fees to workers who were wrongfully charged on condition for their employment.
- Recently, HPE’s suppliers reimbursed approximately $1M USD to workers who HPE learned through our due diligence and grievance processes were wrongfully charged by recruitment agents further down the supply chain. We worked in partnership with our suppliers throughout the remedy process, reviewing multiple forms of evidence for each reimbursement payment. We are pleased to report that all outstanding reimbursements have been made, though HPE is continuously working to identify and remedy any other instances of wrongful charges.
- We will soon publish an updated standard to progress our expectations and be inclusive of internal and domestic migrant workers. We’ll continue to build the capacity of our suppliers and their recruitment agents to comply.
2. Launching HPE’s first principles for ethical AI
Did you know:
- AI holds the potential to solve some of society’s biggest, most pressing challenges, but the “artificial” in AI also presents potential risks and adverse impacts to society because it takes some of the human element out of the equation.
- To address the unique human rights risks associated with AI, HPE established its first-ever AI Ethics Advisory Board last year. The Board is responsible for ensuring the use, development, and deployment of AI products and solutions by HPE and our customers aligns to our high ethical standards.
- The Board’s first action was to define a set of AI Ethical Principles to guide how we use and develop responsible AI that has beneficial outcomes for people, businesses, and public services.
- We are now developing, testing, and refining processes for assessing the AI we use, develop, and sell, and approaches for mitigating risk of unintentional harm or misuse.
3. Screening sales transactions that have a high risk of irresponsible use
Did you know:
- HPE mitigates the risk of end-users inappropriately using our technologies by carrying out internal due diligence to identify potentially high-risk transactions, and then assessing and escalating the risk.
- We assess risk in terms of geography, industry, customer history, and use case or potential for misuse. We prioritize areas where potential harm is greatest or where vulnerable groups could experience heightened impact.
- We then work with the business to avoid or mitigate transactions with risk of potential misuse, which can be through blocking sales, establishing contractual requirements, limiting use, or other actions.
- We have also embedded human rights due diligence into existing ethical screenings in other areas of our business including acquisitions, investments, and partnerships.
- Looking ahead, we are exploring ways to better support our partners in their commitments and screenings, identify emerging risks, and engage with rightsholders to improve how we assess our efforts and ensure a positive impact.
Our business, and the technology industry as a whole, are continuously evolving. In the next few years, we will reassess our salient risks and approach in light of our corporate focus on edge computing and everything-as-a-service. It will be critical to strengthen partnerships and ensure all who sell our products share our values and uphold the UNGPs. We will continuously look to strengthen and improve our approach across all our salient human rights risks, and to boost our ambitions and set more robust goals and measurable targets that we can report to HPE leadership and our stakeholders.
Throughout our journey of continuous improvement, we welcome your input and feedback to help us advance in our approach. Please join us today in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the UNGPs and our ten-year commitment.
Read HPE’s Global Human Rights Policy to learn about our salient human rights risks, and our approach to respecting human rights and managing the risks.
About the Author
Pam Wood manages human rights and social responsibility programs at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She has over 15 years of experience in human rights and responsible supply chains, including setting strategy, managing global teams and operations, and living and working in Canada, China, Costa Rica, Peru, the UK, and USA. She holds an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
HPE Editor
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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