Companies Now Have a Powerful New Tool for Promoting and Protecting the Rights of LGBTIQ+ Employees

Authors

• Victoria Reca

  Former Manager, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, BSR

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  Elisa Pinto de Magalhães

  Manager, Consumer Sectors, BSR

  

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  Elisa Pinto de Magalhães

  Manager, Consumer Sectors, BSR

  

  New York

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  Elisa works with consumer-facing companies on sustainability management, human rights, and developing sustainable supply chains, among other topics. She also supports the Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality.

  Prior to joining BSR, Elisa worked in international sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has worked extensively in the Latin America and Caribbean region on improving policy and supporting social movements to advance gender equality at national and regional levels. She frequently collaborated with grassroots organizations on the development of advocacy strategies to strengthen gender equality across the region. Elisa has also managed projects, focused on East Africa, on improving the supply chain for contraceptives. She also worked on advancing gender equality in intergovernmental spaces, including at the United Nations.

  Elisa holds a first-class honors MA in Gender, Society, and Representation from the University College of London and a BA in Economics and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Tufts University. Elisa is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

  Close

• Noora Larson

  Former Associate, BSR

A wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ policies, driven by populist movements, continues to rise around the world, threatening many of the rights-protecting victories achieved over the last several decades. 

In May, the Human Rights Campaign declared that “2021 officially [became the] worst year in recent history for LGBTIQ+ state legislative attacks as [an] unprecedented number of states enact [a] record-shattering number of anti-LGBTQI measures into law.” And that is just in the United States.

2021 has witnessed similar backlashes to LGBTIQ+ communities claiming their universal human rights in places like Hungary, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe, a region once deemed to be “a world leader on gay rights.”

In the face of this, the world’s leading companies have a tremendous opportunity to stand up and promote rights and protections for their LGBTIQ+ employees.  A new tool recently launched by a coalition of international organizations, including BSR and the Partnership for Global LGBTIQ+ Equality (PGLE), is helping companies to do just that.

While many companies have embedded protections and benefits for their LGBTIQ+ employees into their systems, the UN Standards present a framework for companies to go even further—by positioning LGBTIQ+ rights as universal human rights and building off the concepts embedded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Through the implementation of the UN Standards, companies have a path forward, and indeed a responsibility, to promote these universal rights within their spheres of influence—including business partners, governments, and the communities in which they do business.

In September 2021, a coalition of organizations launched the UN LGBTIQ+ Standards Gap Analysis Tool (Tool). Partners in this effort include BSR, PGLE, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), with the generous support of BCG. The tool is a practical, step-by-step guide designed to help companies navigate the implementation of the UN Standards so it can be used across relevant departments and functions within your company. It is a complimentary and strictly confidential online platform that helps companies assess current policies and programs, highlight areas for improvement, and identify opportunities to set future corporate goals and targets when implementing the Standards.

Furthermore, the tool can provide companies with a roadmap to further align their practices, policies, and procedures in line with the UN Standards of Conduct.

We believe the UN Standards and our supportive tool are the authoritative frameworks for businesses to respect the human rights of LGBTIQ+ people across their value chains—including employees, those of their business partners, and LGBTIQ+ communities worldwide. It is also a catalyst for determining action and support for companies to use in house and provides an opportunity for DEI leaders to articulate the importance of providing enduring improvements for LGBTIQ+ community internally and within the communities in which they operate and provide services and products to.

We encourage BSR members and beyond to support the Standards and use this tool to guide them on this very important and worthwhile journey.