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UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework

The UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework, launched in February 2015, is the first comprehensive guidance for companies to report on issues in line with their responsibility to respect human rights. This responsibility is set out in a global standard, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The framework provides a concise set of questions that enable us to understand and demonstrate that we are meeting our responsibility to respect human rights in practice.

In this, our first year of using the framework, we have met the minimum threshold, designed to be attainable by any company working to address human rights within its business. Over time, we will endeavor to undertake a formal process to identify salient human rights issues, answer more supporting questions and improve the quality of our responses.

Human rights topicQuestionLinks to responses
Part A: Governance of respect for human rights
Policy commitmentA1 What does the company say publicly about its commitment to respect human rights?Our Approach
A1.1 How has the public commitment been developed? 
A1.2 Whose human rights does the public commitment address?Policy Letter 24 (pdf, 156kb)
A1.3 How is the public commitment disseminated?Policy Letter 24 (pdf, 156kb)
Embedding respect for human rightsA2 How does the company demonstrate the importance it attaches to the implementation of its human rights commitment?Human Trafficking Disclosure Statement (pdf, 104kb)
A2.1 How is day-to-day responsibility for human rights performance organized within the company, and why? 
A2.2 What kinds of human rights issues are discussed by senior management and by the Board, and why? 
A2.3 How are employees and contract workers made aware of the ways in which respect for human rights should inform their decisions and actions?Internal Supply Chain Sustainability Training
A2.4 How does the company make clear in its business relationships the importance it places on respect for human rights?Policy Letter 24 (pdf, 156kb)
A2.5 What lessons has the company learned during the reporting period about achieving respect for human rights, and what has changed as a result?
Part B: Defining the focus of reporting
Statement of salient issuesB1 State the salient human rights issues associated with the company’s activities and business relationships during the reporting period.

Although Ford has not yet conducted a formal saliency process, we have identified our key human rights issues as being:

Determination of salient issuesB2 Describe how the salient human rights issues were determined, including any input from stakeholders.Risk Profile and Analysis
Choice of focal geographies (if any)B3 If reporting on the salient human rights issues focuses on particular geographies, explain how that choice was made.Priority Countries
Additional severe impacts (if any)B4 Identify any severe impacts on human rights that occurred or were still being addressed during the reporting period, but which fall outside of the salient human rights issues, and explain how they have been addressed.We have not identified any severe impacts that fall outside of our identified human rights issues.
Part C: Management of salient human rights issues
Specific policiesC1 Does the company have any specific policies that address its salient human rights issues and, if so, what are they?Policy Letter 24 (pdf, 156kb)
C1.1 How does the company make clear the relevance and significance of such policies to those who need to implement them? 
Stakeholder engagementC2 What is the company’s approach to engagement with stakeholders in relation to each salient human rights issue?
C2.1 How does the company identify which stakeholders to engage with in relation to each salient issue, and when and how to do so? 
C2.2 During the reporting period, which stakeholders has the company engaged with regarding each salient issue, and why? 
C2.3 During the reporting period, how have the views of stakeholders influenced the company’s understanding of each salient issue and/or its approach to addressing it? 
Assessing impactsC3 How does the company identify any changes in the nature of each salient human rights issue over time?Risk Profile and Analysis
C3.1 During the reporting period, were there any notable trends or patterns in impacts related to a salient issue and, if so, what were they?There were no identified notable trends or patterns in impacts related to our key human rights issues during the reporting period.
C3.2 During the reporting period, did any severe impacts occur that were related to a salient issue and, if so, what were they?There were no severe impacts relating to our key human rights issues during the reporting period.
Integrating findings and taking actionC4 How does the company integrate its findings about each salient human rights issue into its decision-making processes and actions?
C4.1 How are those parts of the company whose decisions and actions can affect the management of salient issues involved in finding and implementing solutions? 
C4.2 When tensions arise between the prevention or mitigation of impacts related to a salient issue and other business objectives, how are these tensions addressed? 
C4.3 During the reporting period, what action has the company taken to prevent or mitigate potential impacts related to each salient issue? 
Tracking performanceC5 How does the company know if its efforts to address each salient human rights issue are effective in practice?Taking Corrective Action
C5.1 What specific examples from the reporting period illustrate whether each salient issue is being managed effectively? 
RemediationC6 How does the company enable effective remedy if people are harmed by its actions or decisions in relation to a salient human rights issue?Taking Corrective Action
C6.1 Through what means can the company receive complaints or concerns related to each salient issue?Reporting Violations
C6.2 How does the company know if people feel able and empowered to raise complaints or concerns? 
C6.3 How does the company process complaints and assess the effectiveness of outcomes? 
C6.4 During the reporting period, what were the trends and patterns in complaints or concerns and their outcomes regarding each salient issue, and what lessons has the company learned? 
C6.5 During the reporting period, did the company provide or enable remedy for any actual impacts related to a salient issue and, if so, what are typical or significant examples?