Advancing human rights
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13 May 2019
A key focus of 2018 was determining our salient human rights issues – the human rights at risk of the most severe negative impact through a company’s activities and business relations. Through engagement with SHIFT, a not for profit organisation, we arrived at our four salient human rights issues.
“The assessment of salient human rights issues is focused on the perspectives of those individuals whose rights may be affected,” said Siobhan Toohill, Group Head of Sustainability at Westpac Group. “We could be connected to human rights risks due to our actions or via third party business relationships.”
Our salient human rights issues
A process of identification, assessment and prioritisation in each of our roles – as an employer, a customer, a financial services provider, a buyer and a supporter of communities – led us to focus on four salient human rights issues from a longer list of issues that we will continue to develop. These are:
Advancing human rights
In addition to assessing and identifying our salient human rights issues, we have continued to take steps to advance human rights in line with our 2020 Human Rights Action Plan. Highlights of this work have included: