December 10 marks the seventy fifth anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Common Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a landmark doc that for the primary time acknowledged human rights and freedoms are inherent to all people, no matter nationality, ethnicity, faith, or some other standing.
At Cisco, we’ve had a longstanding dedication to respect the human rights enumerated within the Declaration, amongst different treaties. We conduct human rights due diligence to determine and deal with potential impacts to human rights in any respect levels of our worth chain – from the way in which we supply minerals and manufacture our merchandise to potential impacts on finish customers stemming from meant and unintended makes use of of our merchandise. This yr, we launched a brand new Environmental, Social, and Public Coverage Committee of our Board of Administrators to strategize and govern our strategy to human rights, reflecting the growing significance of and a spotlight to those points on the highest ranges of our firm.
As we commemorate this milestone, I needed to replicate on the continuing legacy of the UDHR, its relevance to Cisco, and the way it shapes our work to satisfy our function of Powering an Inclusive Future for All. Listed below are just a few of our most salient points, together with some examples of our ongoing work to respect these rights.
Article 12: Proper to Privateness
Within the digital period, the appropriate to privateness is extra vital than ever. We work onerous to respect the appropriate to privateness by designing with privateness in thoughts from the earliest levels of the event course of. In 2015, we created a devoted privateness crew to embed privateness by design as a core part of our growth methodologies. This crew is accountable for conducting privateness impression assessments (PIA) as a part of the Cisco Safe Growth Lifecycle. And, simply as we’ve tailored and developed our strategy to privateness through the years in alignment with the altering expertise panorama, we’re doing the identical for AI. Cisco’s Accountable AI framework, which applies a human rights lens to accountable design, growth, and deployment of AI, was constructed on the basis of our privateness program.
Article 19: Proper to Freedom of Opinion and Info
At Cisco, we strongly consider within the energy of the Web. There was no larger power in making info extra accessible and alternatives extra out there. We additionally acknowledge the inherent threat of this expertise being misused. Navigating this stability – securely connecting billions of individuals whereas respecting human rights – is core to who we’re. Cisco doesn’t customise networking gear to censor content material, monitor Web use by people, or intercept Web communications. Our gross sales actions are in strict compliance with U.S. export guidelines and rules, that are knowledgeable and guided by human rights ideas. We’ve got supported the United Nations World Compact (UNGC) since its inception in 2000, and our dedication to human rights continues to evolve to fulfill new challenges posed by the fast tempo of change throughout the tech sector.
Article 23: Proper to Simply and Favorable Circumstances of Work
We interact with suppliers globally to drive conformance to our human rights insurance policies. As a founding member of the Accountable Enterprise Alliance (RBA), Cisco adopted the RBA Code of Conduct as its Provider Code of Conduct. This code units requirements for labor, well being and security, atmosphere, ethics, and administration techniques. This previous yr, our audits coated the working situations of greater than 446,000 employees, and our applications helped give employees a voice on well being and security, bonded labor, and accountable mining.
As we have fun the seventy fifth anniversary of the UDHR, I’m proud to share Cisco’s ongoing work to uphold these rights. For extra details about how Cisco is addressing these points, please learn our newest Objective Report or reference our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, efficiency, and insurance policies.
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