Our Human Rights Policy is based on our 4 Ethical Principles – INTEGRITY, RESPECT, COURAGE
and TRANSPARENCY – and is part of our Code of Ethics.
We believe that as a business we have a responsibility to respect internationally recognised human
rights and that we must take steps to identify and address any actual or potential adverse impacts
in which we may be involved through our own operations or our business relationships. We also
believe that we can contribute to positive human rights impacts by playing our role as a responsible
corporate citizen.
We consider that it is the right thing to do as well as a subject of growing importance to our
employees, consumers, shareholders, business partners, communities in which we operate and civil
society.
OUR APPROACH
L’ORÉAL
Human Rights Policy
We are a global company operating in 140
countries and we are committed to respecting
all internationally recognised human rights as
relevant to our operations and value chain.
We are a signatory of the United Nations
Global Compact. Our approach is based on
internationally recognised standards and namely
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
United Nations Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights and the ILO Core Conventions
that address child labour, forced labour, non-
discrimination and the right
to freedom of association and collective
bargaining.
We may face requirements to comply with local
laws and policies in ways which can conflict with
these international standards.
In such circumstances, we work to meet these
international standards to the greatest extent
possible given local law. We recognise that
part of fulfilling our responsibility to respect
international human rights standards also includes
bringing awareness and sharing expectations
across our whole value chain about how to meet
international standards in different jurisdictions.
We believe that we can most effectively respect
and promote internationally recognised human
rights through our presence rather than our
absence from countries where human rights risks
are systemic. When operating in such countries,
we may put into place additional due diligence
and adapt our policies and level of engagement
to address such risks, namely in order to pay
particular attention to individuals or groups who
may face a higher risk of negative human rights
impacts such as women or migrant workers or
indigenous populations.
Human rights due diligence is also important
and taken into account during key stages of
our business activities such as acquisitions, new
partnerships and building projects.
In addition to respecting and promoting human
rights in our direct operations, we actively seek
out and favour business partners who share our
commitment to respect internationally recognised
human rights as well as having the courage to
end relationships with business partners who are
unwilling to do so.
We recognise that we cannot address this subject
alone as we are part of many communities around
the world. We also recognise that we need to
hear the perspectives of potentially affected
people, who are our stakeholders. At this time, we
are able to hear from our stakeholders primarily
through trade union platforms (for our own
employees), and for people in our supply chains
through worker interviews during supplier audits
and via the stakeholder forums we regularly
organise in the countries in which we operate.
We support public health actions and in particular
the fight against skin cancer via our Active
Cosmetics Division. There are also many local
and brand initiatives on the same subject. In
addition, we can contribute to positive human
rights impacts via our philanthropy program and
namely the L’ORÉAL Foundation, which allow us
to engage in various initiatives supporting the
development of communities where human rights
are protected and respected and namely our
“Beauty for a Better Life” program.
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