Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Adopted by United Nations, this declaration paved way for many international human rights standards for all sectors entities.
UN Global Compact – An international multi-constituent, voluntary initiative based on internationally accepted ten principles in pursuit of a more sustainable inclusive global economy. The ten principles covers human rights forced labor, child labor, environmental challenges and responsibility, non discrimination, freedom of associations, collective bargaining, corruption, etc.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – Since its founding in 1997, the GRI has been addressing the need for standardized approaches to corporate sustainability reporting. In 2006, GRI published Version 3.0 (G3) of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines emphasizing performance indicators, which contain a separate section titled “Human Rights” with nine performance indicators.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – OECD guidelines contains recommendations on core labor, environmental standards, human rights, competition, taxation, science and technology combating corruption and safe guarding, consumer rights.
Social Accountability 8000 -‘SA 8000’ standard for social accountability, created in 2000 by the Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency (CEPAA). SA8000 developed by an international coalition of businesses, trade unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the basis of International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN convention on the Rights of the Child. The SA8000 code of practice is broken down into nine key areas child labor, management systems, working hours, compensation, disciplinary practices, forced labor, health & safety, freedom of association & collective bargaining and discrimination.
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) – A set of global best practice principles for responsible investment. It provides a framework for achieving better long term investment returns and more sustainable markets.
Equator Principle – Equator principle is a set of environmental and social benchmarks for managing environmental and social issues in development project finance globally. They were developed by private sector banks- led by Citigroup, ABN AMRO, Barclays and WestLB and were launched in June 2003.
Role of International Labor Organization (ILO) – ILO seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights. It formulates international labor standards in the form of conventions and recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labor rights.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 – ISO an International Standard setting body is developing a new standard on Social Responsibility namely ISO 26000 to be published in Nov., 2009. ISO 26000 is intended for use by all types of organizations and in all countries and to assist organization to operate in a socially responsible manner.
Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Services (OHSAS) Standard – OHSAS 18001 is applicable to any organization which aims to establish a health and safety management system at work.