With the advancement of globalization, the impact of corporate human rights issues on society has become evident in recent years. The United Nations endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights cover all nations and all business enterprises. To resolve business and human rights issues, the Guiding Principles focus on “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework and summarize the content that should be observed based on the 31 principles. Among these, corporate responsibilities include policy commitments, human rights due diligence, remediation mechanisms, and human rights education. In 2020, the Government of Japan formulated the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights to address business and human rights issues in Japan, and expressed expectations for Japanese companies to respond to respect for human rights based on international standards. Consequently, the consideration of human rights violations, including forced labor and child labor, is becoming an important factor in business activities.
In 2018, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group established a Group Human Rights Policy and has been working to respect human rights. In light of these domestic and overseas trends regarding human rights, the Group fully revised the Group Human Rights Policy in November 2021.
This Policy is founded in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the Children's Rights and Business Principles.
As a commitment to respect human rights, the Group Human Rights Policy stipulates the basic policy for fulfilling our responsibility to respect all human rights, as well as respect the human rights of customers, partners, employees, and local communities involved in corporate activities. The main human rights issues are forced labor and child labor, overwork and long working hours, mental and physical health and safety, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, fair wages and equal wages for equal work, discrimination, harassment, and the right to privacy.
In addition, we adopt policies such as human rights
due diligence, grievance mechanisms (employee consultation helplines), stakeholder engagement, and raising awareness and training. Of these, human rights due diligence is a mechanism for managing potential human rights risks in corporate activities and avoiding and reducing negative impact on companies (human rights risk management). In particular, we recognize the importance of human rights due diligence for employees, customers, and partners. Regarding the status of human rights due diligence, we are developing a human rights risk assessment process for each stakeholder group. The process begins with human rights due diligence for employees targeting key companies of the Group. Regarding human rights due diligence for corporate customers, we are examining effective evaluation methods to prioritize human rights risks from areas of greater importance.
We recognize the importance of continually implementing the human rights due diligence processes to identify adverse human rights impact and to prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts.
The Group will use this policy as a guide for respect for human rights with the highest priority as we promote our initiatives for the respect for human rights.
