Respect

Commitment

We base our human rights policy commitment on the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

We follow the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and support the UN Global Compact 10 Principles and the Children’s Rights and Business Principles.

These principles, along with Telenor’s Code of Conduct, Policies, Supplier Conduct Principles and our behaviours, provide the Telenor Group with a common approach to how we treat each other, how we serve our customers, how we run our business and what we believe our role to be in the societies where we operate.

At Telenor, respect for human rights means identifying potential risks and taking actions to mitigate them while working to understand how our business can support human rights.

As a global company, Telenor acknowledges that we do face human rights challenges in markets where we operate, and we work to understand and mitigate negative human rights impacts we may have.

We acknowledge that difficult human rights issues must often be addressed on a case-by-case basis, and the appropriate responses to human rights challenges cannot always be easily extracted from the UN Framework or other relevant sources. We also believe that dialogue between governments, the industry, NGOs and others has great value when facing human rights challenges.

Telenor’s approach to human rights

1. Internal action – having appropriate and effective policies and guidance material to enable our colleagues across functions to put this into practice

2. Collaboration – through partnerships and stakeholder engagement

3. Transparency – being transparent and reporting on challenges and company practices to the greatest extent possible

Sharing and transparency, respecting human rights

Telenor is committed to being transparent on challenges and company practices to the greatest extent possible through its annual sustainability report, the Authority Request Disclosure Report and through other sustainability updates, presentations and public arenas. Examples of engagements and public communications include Telenor Myanmar’s Annual Sustainability Briefings, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, the UN’s Special Procedures website,  UN Forum on Business and Human Rights and on our own website.

As part of Telenor’s commitment to transparency we also report on specific efforts related to ongoing human rights challenges in Myanmar. 

Human rights in Myanmar

Telenor engages with a number of organisations to advance its human rights objectives, including the UN Global Compact, the Global Network Initiative, GSMA, the Joint Audit Cooperation (JAC) and Global Union.

Labour rights

As a responsible employer, Telenor takes steps to uphold the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which include the freedom of association and the recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour, child labour and discrimination in the workplace. These principles are reflected in Telenor’s Code of Conduct, Group Policy People and Supplier Conduct Principles.

As stated in our policies, we recognise and respect the employees’ right to freedom to form or be part of unions of their choice and the right to collective bargaining, in accordance with national law and regulations. We do not interfere with employees’ decision to associate. No direct or indirect negative discrimination shall take place against employees in the process of union formation or later when acting as recognised employee representatives.

Children’s rights

Telenor strives to extend the benefits of communications technology to youth, at the same time acknowledging our responsibility to help protect younger generations from harm that may result from use of these services. Telenor supports the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, authored by UNICEF, Save the Children and the United Nations Global Compact, and has initiated several programmes in its global operations that work to address communications-related child safety issues. The company also recognises the International Labour Organization’s convention on the abolition of child labour, and continues to work proactively to respect and support children’s rights in all of its business units.