Implementing Guidelines

Fundamental to being a good global citizen is respecting human rights. While GE has a long history of support for human rights, as captured in The Spirit & The Letter, the Company’s specific focus on human rights continues as a journey that first began in 2006. It was at that time—as the Company envisioned substantial growth in emerging markets—that GE decided to get ahead of the human rights issues we would no doubt encounter in these markets. That year, GE joined the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights to understand human rights in the context of business.

Since then, GE has taken substantial steps to carve a Company position on human rights. In 2007, GE adopted a Statement of Principles on Human Rights and declared support for the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Next, in 2008, GE joined the Global Compact, whose 10 principles focus not only on human rights, but also on environmental sustainability and anti-corruption.

Finally, in 2009, Implementing Procedures were issued—designed to utilize existing operating mechanisms like Session D to anticipate human rights issues, promote respect for human rights and create a framework for resolving conflicts between national law and human rights principles. The same year, the Company produced a 20-minute training video to educate business leaders on human rights in business contexts, to advise why human rights are important to the Company, to identify the legal and reputational risks, and to call on them to take action on human rights sensitive to the role they play in GE’s business model.

For the rollout of the Implementing Procedures, the approach has been to utilize existing operating cycles and management structures and append a human rights lens to their scope of review. The general counsels of each of the major businesses were asked to identify Human Rights Champions to be responsible for undertaking this due diligence effort and report any issues to their Compliance Review Board. Quarterly telephone convenings have been held to share concerns and best practices.

Human rights were also an important theme at the 2009 Global Leadership Meeting. Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt presented a new initiative named “21st Century Leadership,” which included the following expectations for GE leaders with respect to human rights:

• Know what human rights are, understand their importance to GE and help in assuring that our business partners also respect human rights.
• Understand ways in which your business products, practices and growth plans can encounter human rights issues.
• Appreciate the implications to your business—both legal and reputational—of a failure to respect human rights.
• Lead by respecting the dignity of all individuals you come in contact with in your work.
• Promote a culture of reporting human rights risks or deprivations as you encounter them in your work.