Introduction

Businesses play an essential role in employment, livelihoods, and community development, yet weak human rights commitments can lead to job insecurity and inequality. Investors share responsibility to uphold human rights through responsible investment. The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) supports this by providing tools for investors to assess corporate accountability, manage financial risk, and align with global sustainability expectations.

Benchmarking for a better world

Founded in 2018, the WBA benchmarks over 2,000 major companies against the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Its publicly available data shows what good corporate practice looks like and helps investors and other stakeholders incentivise improvement. Collaborating with asset managers and owners, the WBA promotes data-driven accountability and sustainable systems transformation.

A tool for investors: WBA’s corporate human rights benchmark

The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) evaluates influential companies in high-risk sectors on their human rights performance. The 2022–2023 assessments covered 227 companies across food and agriculture, ICT manufacturing, automotive, apparel, and extractives sectors. The benchmark analyses policies, processes, and practices, identifying both best practice and areas for improvement.

The CHRB methodology

The methodology is grounded in multistakeholder consultation and international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It evaluates companies across five areas: governance and policies, embedding respect for human rights, remedies and grievance mechanisms, human rights practices, and responses to allegations.

How to use this guidance

This guidance translates CHRB findings into investor-oriented assessment questions for use during stewardship and engagement. The questions are supported by CHRB resources including methodologies, rankings, scorecards, and examples of leading practices. The WBA emphasises that the guidance is informational and not investment advice.

Key findings and recommendations for investor action

Over five CHRB assessments, 66% of companies improved performance on key human rights indicators, though 61% still score below 20 out of 100. High-performing companies share common practices: assigning senior-level responsibility, assessing salient risks, building internal capacity, and implementing external grievance mechanisms. Investors are encouraged to question companies on these practices.

While 78% of companies publicly commit to human rights, implementation remains limited. Firms that assign day-to-day responsibility and provide role-specific training score on average 150% higher. Top performers embed accountability across departments and provide targeted human rights training, particularly for procurement roles.

Only 27% of companies engage directly with rightsholders during due diligence, and 55% provide no evidence of consultation. Investors should seek disclosure on engagement processes and how rightsholders’ feedback shapes decision-making.

Although 90% of companies offer grievance mechanisms for workers and 68% for external stakeholders, few ensure trust and ownership—only 4% disclose building predictability and transparency, and 11% involve rightsholders in design. Investors should examine how firms ensure accessibility, fairness, and remedy provision.

Most companies take a limited approach to human rights in supply chains. While 74% consider human rights in supplier contracts, only a small minority support suppliers through responsible purchasing. Investors should evaluate how payment terms, pricing, and planning align with human rights expectations.

Prioritising sectoral risks as an investor

The WBA identifies five high-risk sectors: food and agriculture, apparel, extractives, ICT, and automotive. Key human rights risks include living wages, forced labour, gender equality, working hours, transparency, land rights, and responsible sourcing. Investors are advised to tailor engagement to sector-specific issues such as collective bargaining in manufacturing, transparency in extractives, or child labour and water rights in agriculture.

Collaborate with WBA and its allies to improve corporate performance on human rights

The WBA’s Gender Collective Impact Coalition enables cross-sector collaboration on gender equality using data from the Gender Benchmark. Investors are encouraged to join the Alliance to contribute to systemic progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, foster collaboration, and scale effective human rights practices across industries.