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 tackle potential impacts to human rights in any respect levels of our price chain – from the way in which we supply minerals and manufacture our merchandise to potential impacts on finish customers stemming from supposed 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 method to human rights, reflecting the growing significance of and a focus to those points on the highest ranges of our firm.
As we commemorate this milestone, I wished to replicate on the continued legacy of the UDHR, its relevance to Cisco, and the way it shapes our work to meet our function of Powering an Inclusive Future for All. Listed here are a couple of 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 laborious 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 staff to embed privateness by design as a core element of our growth methodologies. This staff is answerable for conducting privateness affect assessments (PIA) as a part of the Cisco Safe Improvement Lifecycle. And, simply as we’ve tailored and advanced our method to privateness over time 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 Data
At Cisco, we strongly imagine within the energy of the Web. There was no larger drive in making info extra accessible and alternatives extra accessible. We additionally acknowledge the inherent danger of this expertise being misused. Navigating this steadiness – securely connecting billions of individuals whereas respecting human rights – is core to who we’re. Cisco doesn’t customise networking tools to censor content material, observe Web use by people, or intercept Web communications. Our gross sales actions are in strict compliance with U.S. export guidelines and laws, that are knowledgeable and guided by human rights rules. Now we have supported the United Nations International 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 Situations of Work
We have interaction 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 lined 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 rejoice 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 Function Report or reference our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, efficiency, and insurance policies.
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