Human Rights
Overview
As a People Forward organization, we recognize the potential of S&P Global’s business to impact human rights across the value chain. We are committed to respect and support for all human rights in our operations, value chain, and products and services, in accordance with international standards and applicable law.
This material topic includes how we respect and advance human rights in our operations and value chain. This includes assessing, preventing, managing and mitigating human rights risks that may occur as a result of the company’s role as an employer, procurer, and data and services provider. Reflecting the interconnectedness of human rights and other key topics, related information is also provided in other sections of this report, including Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Management, Culture and Engagement, Employee Health, Safety and Wellbeing, and Data Privacy and Cybersecurity.
Focus Areas
Expanding identification and prioritization of actual and potential human rights impacts across the organization’s full value chain.
Enhancing our enterprise-wide approach to human rights due diligence
2024 Highlights
Conducted internal assessment of due diligence processes for six priority risk areas identified by 2023 saliency assessment, identifying gaps and opportunities for enhancement aligned with internationally recognized principles and standards.
Integrated six priority risk areas into Non-Financial Risk Taxonomy and annual Enterprise Top Risk Assessment process, to enhance internal stakeholder awareness and management of human rights risks.
Our Approach
S&P Global supports fundamental human rights in accordance with internationally recognized principles and standards, including the United Nations Global Compact and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). We also comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements related to human rights, including those specified by the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 and others. We seek to uphold international principles and standards for human rights in all countries where we operate, even where local laws or practices may not align.
Our commitment to human rights is codified by our Global Human Rights Policy, which addresses specific human rights issues including:
- Human trafficking
- Forced and compulsory labor
- Child labor
- Health and occupational safety
- Equality and nondiscrimination
- Privacy protection
- Freedom of association
- Fair and equal remuneration
Respect for human rights is also embedded in key policies and standards deployed throughout the company, including:
- Code of Business Ethics (COBE)
- Vendor Code of Conduct (VCOC)
- Health, Safety and Environment Policy
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
- Division-specific ethics policies
- Employee Privacy Policy
Our Chief People Officer and Chief Financial Officer are responsible for human rights issues connected to our business and operations, with oversight from the Executive Leadership Team. Within the Corporate Responsibility team, the Global Head of Corporate Responsibility is responsible for managing human rights risk identification and due diligence across the enterprise. S&P Global engages, consults and collaborates with external experts, nongovernmental organizations and others to determine appropriate ways to improve how the company manages human rights risks and prepare for future regulations.
Human Rights Risk Assessment and Due Diligence
S&P Global works to continually identify, assess and mitigate potential and actual human rights impacts resulting from our business activities in our roles as employer, procurer and data and services provider. In 2023, we completed an enterprise-wide saliency assessment to identify focused areas of human rights risk that can be connected to our own operations, supply chain, and products and services. Through this process, we prioritized six areas of risk, as outlined below.
In 2024, we built on this work by undertaking an internal assessment of due diligence processes for each of the six priority areas listed below, identifying gaps and opportunities for enhancement aligned with internationally recognized principles and standards. We also worked with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to integrate the six priority risk areas into our company-wide Non-Financial Risk Taxonomy and annual Enterprise Top Risk Assessment process, to enhance internal stakeholder awareness and management of human rights risks.
Salient Human Rights Risks
| Risk | Description | |
|---|---|---|
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Data Privacy | Protection of personal data against abuse and cyber attacks. Rights of individuals to be protected from arbitrary, unreasonable or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, and from attacks on their reputation. |
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Discrimination, Harassment and Minority Rights | Freedom from unequal treatment, directly or indirectly, on various grounds, including race, ethnicity, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, and birth or other status (such as sexual orientation or health status). Protection from harassment and abuse, including but not limited to violence; corporal punishment; harsh or degrading treatment; sexual or physical harassment; and mental, physical, verbal or sexual abuse. |
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Security of the Person | The right not to be deprived of life arbitrarily or unlawfully, including unlawful detention. Right to have one’s life protected, for example, from physical attacks or health and safety risks. |
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Health and Safety | Protection of workers from exposure to short- and long-term risks at work and to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses. |
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Forced Labor | The right not to be coerced to work using violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities. |
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Fair and Equal Remuneration | The right to receive compensation for work without discrimination. Includes the principle of receiving equal pay for equal work. |
Human Rights and Our Operations
As a large company with a global workforce, we have a responsibility to safeguard the human rights of our 42,000-plus global employees, as well as contractors, interns and other temporary workers involved in our operations. Considering the nature of our business and role as an employer, potential risks to workers may pertain to data privacy; discrimination, harassment and minority rights; health and safety; security of the person; and fair and equal remuneration. Our operations may also be connected to potential adverse impacts on our customers and partners or people in the communities where we operate.
Our COBE underscores our core values and guides everything we do. This includes respecting human rights and treating our people and members of the communities where we do business with dignity and respect. Each year, we ask all employees to complete an annual training on COBE and affirm the Affirmation Statement. In addition, we regularly provide additional training and updates to all global staff on health and safety as well as information and data privacy.
In addition, our Human Rights Policy; Employee Privacy Policy; and Health, Safety and Environmental Policy each outline important details of our commitment to preventing discrimination and harassment, providing fair and equal remuneration, protecting privacy and maintaining workplace safety. Following the saliency assessment, our Corporate Responsibility team has started to deepen engagement and education efforts around respect for global human rights with key corporate functions including People, Enterprise Risk Management, Global Security and other business units.
Human Rights and Our Supply Chain
S&P Global’s supply chain involves thousands of suppliers and tens of thousands of individuals working in geographies around the world. As a result, we may be connected to human rights impacts affecting supply chain workers and/or people in the communities where our suppliers operate. Potential risks to people may pertain to data privacy, forced labor, discrimination and harassment, health and safety, security of the person, and fair and equal remuneration.
Our VCOC, together with our COBE, sets out the standards and practices we expect suppliers to uphold, including respecting internationally recognized human rights and labor standards. As vendors and suppliers sign our VCOC, they commit to manage, prevent and mitigate any potential adverse impact on human rights. The VCOC explicitly prohibits forced or child labor, employment-based discrimination, and harassment and abuse, including for augmented or temporary staff. It also requires suppliers to provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment and to maintain adequate plans for emergency preparedness and response.
For more details on our supply chain sustainability program, including how we are engaging with suppliers on human rights issues, see Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Management.
Human Rights and Our Products and Services
S&P Global offers a wide variety of products and services that are used by thousands of organizations across multiple industries and geographies. Because of this reach, it is possible that we may be connected to human rights impacts affecting our clients’ workers and/or people in the communities impacted by our clients’ operations. Potential risks to people may pertain to data privacy; forced labor; discrimination, harassment and minority rights; health and safety; security of the person; and fair and equal remuneration.
With this in mind, we work to uphold human rights within the design, delivery and use of our commercial products and services, including by maintaining policies and procedures to identify and mitigate product-, data- and technology-related risks. For more information, see Responsible Products and Marketing and Data Privacy and Cybersecurity.
We also strive to support evolving client needs around human-rights-related risk management and impact. For example, since 2016, the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has included a section on human rights due diligence, helping drive increased transparency and awareness in this area.
Grievance Mechanisms
S&P Global acknowledges the responsibility to provide for or cooperate to remedy any adverse human rights impacts we have caused or contributed to – as defined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
We encourage our people, suppliers and subcontractors to proactively report ethical and legal concerns, including potential human rights violations. Our EthicsPoint Helpline is made available to employees and third-party stakeholders to raise concerns, and all reports are promptly and thoroughly investigated. Complaints raised to the helpline are reviewed and monitored for trends. For more information, please refer to page 7 of our COBE.
The COBE also includes provisions so that anyone making a good-faith report of a potential or actual misdeed is protected from retaliation, including being terminated, demoted, threatened, discriminated against or harassed in any way.