A Word from Margaret Jungk on International Human Rights Day

Authors

• Katie Morris

  Former Manager, Communications and Marketing, BSR

Tomorrow, December 10, is International Human Rights Day. The day commemorates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 and “sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.”

Human rights is the number-one sustainability priority for BSR’s member companies, and it has been for the past six years running. When speaking with our members about why business leaders are focusing on human rights and which issues were the most urgent to address, BSR’s Human Rights Managing Director Margaret Jungk—who was previously a member of the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Business—heard a number of common themes: Human rights is universal and touches every aspect of a company’s operations, it is the language of the people and the essence of sustainability, it has legal clarity and is an ethical imperative.

Margaret took to the stage at the BSR Conference 2016 in November to showcase our expanding human rights work and emphasize the importance of business leadership and cooperation. “No company operates in a vacuum or in isolation. All companies … whether they’re big or small … are operating within an ecosystem,” she said.

Watch Margaret’s full speech below: 

The BSR Conference 2016, which took place November 1-3 in New York, gathered sustainability leaders from business, government, and civil society to explore the theme of “Be Bold.” See all video highlights on BSR’s YouTube channel.