Human rights risks

Human rights risk scores are crucial for identifying key improvement areas and setting priorities within your supply chain, ensuring your organisation meets its responsible and sustainable goals.

Detailed data you've yet to discover

Ready to gain unparalleled insights into your supply chain's human rights risks? Our detailed human rights risk dashboard offers national, subnational and sector-specific data of agri commodities, providing a much clearer picture of the human rights landscape. Each risk is quantified on a scale from 0 (no risk at all) to 5 (very high risk), allowing you to understand the severity and take targeted actions to meet your sustainability goals.


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8 human rights risk themes

The human rights risk map shows and compares risks for 9 commodities across 34 countries:

  • Access to land and material resources
  • Child labour*
  • Discrimination*
  • Forced labour*
  • Freedom of association and collective bargaining
  • Insufficient remuneration*
  • Occupational health and safety*
  • Violence and harassment

* Subnational risk scores are also available, depending on data availability.

Explore our catalogue to see the available countries and commodities, including the themes for which subnational scores are available for each combination.

Unlock more human rights risk scores, some scores are for free:


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Why subnational and sector-specific data matters

Understanding the nuances of human rights risks across different regions and sectors is vital for effective action. Our dashboard provides sector-specific scores, reflecting the diverse production systems, cultivation methods and workforce dynamics. For example, in Colombia, the prevalence of smallholder farming in coffee production increases the risk of child labour compared to palm oil. Our subnational disaggregation empowers organisations to prioritise and address the most salient risks in their supply chain effectively.

Companies can use the risk scores to prioritise risks for a detailed, company-specific risk assessment in line with OECD guidelines. This involves scoping operations and relationships to address high-risk areas, develop strategies, comply with regulations like CSDDD, set KPIs, and monitor progress to mitigate potential adverse impacts.

FAQ

Dashboard coverage

What are the human rights risks covered by the dashboard? For human rights risks, we incorporate 8 risks:
  • Access to land and material resources
  • Child labour
  • Discrimination
  • Forced labour
  • Freedom of association and collective bargaining
  • Insufficient remuneration
  • Occupational health and safety
  • Violence and harassment

Which agricultural commodities are covered by the dashboard? The human rights risks dashboard currently covers 9 commodities across 34 countries: cocoa, coffee, cotton, maize, palm oil, rice, rubber, soy, and wheat. Please visit our catalogue page to view the available country-commodity combinations.

Which countries are covered by the dashboard? The human rights risks dashboard currently covers 34 countries. Please visit our catalogue page to view the available country-commodity combinations.

Does the dashboard also cover environmental risks? Yes, the Due Diligence Dashboard also provides insights into 7 environmental risk themes:
  • Acidification
  • Biodiversity loss
  • Climate change
  • Deforestation
  • Ecotoxicity
  • Eutrophication: fresh water & marine
  • Water stress

Sign up for free to view scores on all human rights and environmental risk themes specific to the cocoa and cotton sector in Cameroon.

How can I access more human rights risks scores? You can access more human rights risks scores by signing up for the free dashboard. After signing up you immediately have access to 8 human rights risks scores and 7 environmental risks scores, specific to the cocoa and cotton sector in Cameroon.

For more countries and/or commodities, explore our premium dashboard.


Methodology

How are the risk scores calculated? The human rights risk scores are calculated using a comprehensive methodology combining existing data on various national and subnational theme-related indicators with insights from a standardised literature review. These scores support your initial steps towards aligning with due diligence legislation. For the full methodology see the methodology page.

Legislative compliance & next steps

What is a human rights risk assessment? A human rights risk assessment is a high-level assessment of the most salient risks - based on criteria of severity and likelihood - that companies may encounter within their supply chains. This concerns either their own business operations, their direct suppliers, or their indirect suppliers. A human rights risk assessment typically consists out of three levels of assessment:
  • A high-level risk assessment, that identifies key risks within a specific geography, sector, and product. This assessment, combined with enterprise-specific risks enables a first prioritisation of risks to be used as input for deeper risk assessment. The human rights risk scores are intended for this purpose.
  • An in-depth risk and impact assessment is the next step. This is an assessment of company-specific risks by assessing prioritised Responsible Business Conduct risks and prioritised operations, suppliers, or other business relationships. This second step provides a company-specific basis to address, prevent, mitigate, and remediate (potential) adverse impacts.
  • An event-based risk assessment, which is an incidental risk assessment, based on the occurrence of specific changes. It can be triggered, for example, by changes in business activities, by new substantiated knowledge such as reporting on incidents, or by changes in the operating environment, whether actual or expected, such as societal tensions.

What does the EU supply chain legislation imply for my organisation? Several pieces of EU legislation have a due diligence component, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Forced Labour Regulation, and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). All these pieces of legislation require companies to take concrete steps, although their exact requirements differ, to systematically identify, assess and address human rights or environmental risks in their operations and supply chains, and prove that they have done so through documented, risk-based due diligence processes.

The adopted Omnibus package (2025), meant to simplify and reduce the regulatory burden, has revised some of the thresholds, timing and scope of EU supply chain legislation, delaying the implementation of various pieces of legislation and decreasing their scope and requirements.

The OECD Guidelines and UNGPs play a central role as a reference framework for many of the EU’s due diligence laws. As such, they provide a useful starting point for establishing a harmonised framework for broader due diligence compliance.

What does the CSDDD imply for my organisation? The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) mandates that companies operating within the European Union integrate human rights and environmental considerations into their business strategies and operations. This involves identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for actual and potential adverse human rights and environmental impacts.

Companies are required to establish and implement due diligence processes, which include regular assessments, taking appropriate measures to prevent or mitigate risks, tracking the effectiveness of these measures, and publicly reporting on their due diligence activities. The directive aims to promote sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour, ensuring that businesses contribute positively to global sustainability goals.

The Omnibus package (2025) meant a severe renegotiation of the original directive, including delaying its implementation, narrowing its scope, removing the uniform liability rules and altering the value chain cap. The adoption of the final text is expected by the end of 2025. With the Omnibus package under way, it is likely that the CSDDD will only apply to a limited number of companies across the EU, with only the largest multinational companies, in terms of size and revenue, remaining in scope.

How do the risk scores help my organisation to be compliant with the EU CSDDD legislation? The EU CSDDD requires companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how actual and potential adverse impacts are addressed. The directive allows for the prioritisation of topics to be addressed. The risk scores can be used for this step. Please note that relatively low risk scores still require further assessment to determine if any company-specific adverse impacts may be at play.

The CSDDD doesn’t apply to me, why should I still care? While other EU supply chain legislation might still be relevant from a legal compliance perspective, many companies and countries have committed themselves to adhere to the principles of the OECD Guidelines and UNGPs. There are more reasons to engage in a risk-based assessment:
  • An ethical pledge to adhere to social and environmental standards
  • A practical tool for screening new sourcing locations
  • A starting point to make concrete contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • A necessary way to guarantee the future viability of specific supply chains


What are the next steps I can take based on these risk scores? Organisations can use the risk scores directly as input for a prioritisation of risks for the second level of risk analysis: a company-specific in-depth risk and impact assessment. Following the OECD guidelines, the user is expected to combine these risk scores with an enterprise-specific risk assessment as a basis for prioritisation. This involves high-level scoping of a company’s areas of operation and type of business relationships.

The user combines these two assessments to prioritise human rights risks and specific operations, suppliers, or business operations as input for a company-specific risk assessment. Countries, regions, and/or commodity sectors with higher levels of risk and prioritised operations, suppliers, or business relationships could be the first ones to be tackled by a companies’ measures aimed at e.g. the prevention or remediation of (potential) adverse impacts.

Based on the risk scores, companies take steps in areas such as:
  • Strategy and policy development: Gaining clarity on the major risks within the company's chain of activities to prioritise risks and impact areas, engage internal stakeholders, and develop policies to manage these risks.
  • Being compliant with CSDDD: Comprehending the steps required for compliance, including the obligation of risk identification, and conducting thorough investigations into major risks to formulate action plans for their mitigation.
  • Determining the right KPIs when developing an improvement programme, and monitoring, benchmarking, and communicating results.
  • R&D development: Learning from other areas where certain risks are lower or decreasing, including benchmarking.


Support

Can I access the scores offline? Yes. Human rights risk scores can be accessed offline by downloading the data in Excel format. Users can also print or save score overviews as PDF files and export visualisations as PNG images.

What if I have a question about the dashboard and the scores? Our team can provide additional guidance on the interpretation and application of the human rights risk scores. We are available to answer questions related to due diligence, score interpretation, and the use of the dashboard in supply chain assessments. Please feel free to contact us.