Middle East
Why We’re Standing Up on Human Rights Day
December 10 is United Nations International Human Rights Day. This year, we’re sharing what human rights means at L’Oréal and the stories of some of the people at L’Oréal working on human rights issues.
Human rights can seem like an abstract subject, but the reality is that they are relevant to all of us and impact us all daily. There are 30 Human Rights internationally defined by the United Nations, including the right to life and safety, to health, to privacy, to freedom of expression, the right to have a decent job, and more.
At L’Oréal, we are a company made up of human beings whose actions and products impact human beings as well as our planet. As such, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we respect Human Rights by avoiding negative impacts on people and planet from our activities, and by making positive impacts where we can.
In 2017, we adopted our global Human Rights Policy, in line with UN standards. In 2020, it was time to add our Employee Human Rights Policy, because setting an example starts from within, by assuring universal social standards for the people who make up L’Oréal.
Many of L’Oréal’s employees work hard on human rights issues in their day to day. In honor of this year’s International Human Rights Day, we’re shining the spotlight on four of our employees whose work shows how this commitment is key to how we do business. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list – many more of our employees are working on human rights worldwide, stay tuned for more of their stories coming soon.
Ana Del Val, Human Resources Director for our Plant in Burgos, Spain, works on Programa Escuela de la Excelencia Industrial, an inclusion program based on training, to support access to work and to education for people at risk of exclusion. Programa Escuela was founded three years ago. In 2019, graduates received 300 hours of training for graduates and had an average employability rate of 76%.
Find out more about how we’re promoting access to employment and social inclusion.
Rachel Barré, Assistant Vice President Environmental Leadership, is part of the Corporate Responsibility team, working on climate change and gender. As she explains, “working on women’s empowerment and women’s leadership is a key lever of action to accelerate the transition to a world more resistant to climate change.”
Find out more about our commitment to supporting women and climate.
Marine-Elise Clavet, Sustainable Sourcing Project Manager, works on ensuring the respect of human rights in our supply chain, particularly as concerns plant-based raw materials. She works concretely on the level of the farmers, on securing fair prices and decent working conditions as well as access to health care. In 2018, 47,044 people worldwide benefited by L’Oréal’s sustainable sourcing projects, including more than 37,000 women.
Find out more about our sustainable sourcing programs.
Margaret Johnston-Clarke, head of Diversity and Inclusion at L’Oréal, works on making sure that everyone understands what “diversity” and “inclusion” really mean in the workplace, and that these values are upheld. She works on issues ranging from closing the gender pay gap to supporting disclosure of disabilities, aiming at ending discrimination in the workplace.
Find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at L’Oréal.
At L’Oréal our ambition is Beauty for All, and beauty can’t exist without respect for everyone’s rights.
Human Rights violations are still much too frequent in the world, but at L’Oréal – as a company, as a community of coworkers and as individual people – we are committed to doing all we can to put a stop to Human Rights abuse.
Working all together, we have the power to end human rights abuse in our lifetimes. Together, we can end it.
#wecanendit