Chicago-based Mondelēz International Inc. has released its annual Human Rights Due Diligence and Modern Slavery report for 2021, demonstrating progress against its 2025 ESG goals.
The report confirms progress made toward the company’s goals to prevent, identify and address potential human rights and modern slavery risks in its own operations and supply chains.
Along with its progress in supporting human rights across the cocoa supply chain, the 2021 report demonstrates Mondelēz International’s progress in promoting human rights due diligence practices in the sourcing of additional commodities, such as palm oil and hazelnuts.
In 2021, Mondelēz International joined The Sustainable Trade Initiative Living Wage Roadmap to help advance living wages in global supply chains and confirmed a continued commitment to pay its employees a living wage. This builds upon the company’s long-standing focus on promoting human rights with the introduction of a dedicated Human Rights Policy aligned with the United Nations Human Rights Guiding Principles.
“Through our flagship ingredient sourcing program Cocoa Life, we are learning from our decade of experience on the ground in cocoa communities about the importance of living income,” said Laura Stein, EVP for corporate and legal affairs and general counsel, Mondelēz International.
“Building on our ongoing focus on promoting human rights, we joined the Sustainable Trade Initiative Living Wage roadmap to help advance living wage and income in global supply chains. We will also work with our suppliers with the goal of having all our strategic suppliers engaged on a living wage roadmap by 2030.”
Recognizing the systemic nature of human rights issues in global supply chains and the need for all actors along the supply chain to work together to address them, Mondelēz International continues to advocate in favor of mandatory human rights due diligence legislation.
The company supports legislative efforts aimed at enabling practical, proactive, ongoing human rights due diligence and generally welcomes the EU Commission’s proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive, which will require companies to identify and address human rights and environmental risks in their value chain.
“It’s very significant that Mondelēz International was prepared to stick their head above the parapet and say: ‘actually, we need human rights due diligence to become mandatory, so that we can level the playing field and all businesses start upholding human rights standards in their supply chain,’” said Aidan McQuade, human rights expert and author of Ethical Leadership: Moral Decision-Making Under Pressure.
The Human Rights Due Diligence and Modern Slavery report is part of Mondelēz International’s ongoing evaluation and review of best practices in enhancing its approach to respecting human rights. To identify human rights risk, the company is committed to undertaking practical, proactive due diligence in its owned operations and seeks to work with suppliers who share the same level of commitment.
For more information, visit mondelezinternational.com.
