Our Policies and Principles

OUR APPROACH TO HUMAN RIGHTS DUE DILIGENCE

• Sustainability: We use a phased approach, effective prioritization, and scalable tools to make human rights due diligence actionable and sustainable for our clients;
• Practicality: We provide practical guidance with roadmaps for implementation and leverage existing policies and processes whenever possible;
• Collaboration: We work side by side with our clients to transfer our knowledge, build internal capacity, and combine external perspective with institutional knowledge;
• Grounded in International Standards: Our process aligns with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other international human rights standards; and
• Meaningful Engagement: We incorporate direct consultation with rights-holders and leverage existing community engagement efforts to ensure accurate findings. If direct engagement with rightsholders may not be possible, we work with our clients to develop alternative approaches, such as seeking insights directly from stakeholders viewed as legitimate representatives of rightsholders.

STAKEHOLDER RECIPROCITY

We believe stakeholder reciprocity is critical to advancing our field. To thank external stakeholders for their time and input, Article One will develop a high-level, non-attributed, aggregated summary of key insights from the engagement to be shared with participating stakeholders. The summary of key themes will advance the principle of reciprocity—a core expectation for corporate stakeholder engagement on human rights and an important tenet of our Ethical Research and Engagement Principles (see below).

CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY

Article One is committed to respecting and advancing child rights. A core expectation of this commitment is to safeguard children we may come into direct or indirect contact with.

As a human and child rights advisory firm, Article One staff may come into direct (e.g., via interviews) and indirect (e.g., via surveys) contact with children. While we see this as essential to direct engagement with rightsholders as part of our human rights efforts, we recognize the risks involved and our corresponding duty of care. We have a zero-tolerance approach to child abuse, including child labor. Definitions include:

• Child: any individual under age 18.
• Child abuse: all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity.
• Child safeguarding: actions taken by Article One to prevent physical, sexual and emotional abuse and maltreatment perpetrated by employees or other persons whom the company is responsible for, including contractors, business partners, visitors to premises and volunteers.
• Child protection: actions taken to address a specific concern that a particular child is at risk of significant harm due to his or her contact with Article One or our partners.

Our commitment to child safeguarding applies to all Article One staff and partners, including field-level research partners, and anyone else acting on behalf of the company. If Article One staff and partners are required to engage directly with children, we will:

• Conduct a background check on each staff members and partners;
• Train staff members and partners on our expectations regarding child safeguarding and our Ethical Research Principles which include our commitment to equal treatment;
• Instruct each staff member and partner, when in doubt about the age of an individual they engage with, to consider the individual a child for the purpose of applying this policy; and
• Outline a clear and rights-compatible process for escalating concerns related to child safeguarding, including alerting local authorities or child rights advocates where necessary.

While Article One is committed to a robust management process led by the company’s principals,  safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you have questions or concerns related to this policy, please email hello@articleonadvisors.com.

OUR COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY

Article One recognizes the essential connection between environmental protection and human rights. We are committed to operating our business in a way that respects the environment and minimizes environmental impacts.

As a small company operating in the services industry, our environmental impact is minimal. However, to ensure we contribute to a healthy planet. we take the following steps:

• Minimize our environmental footprint by limiting use the use of unnecessary products and engaging only in essential travel; and
• Choose suppliers whose policies align with our commitments, including Apple and Microsoft.

In addition, as part of our consulting work, we seek to guide our clients towards mitigating adverse environmental impacts that have the ability to negatively affect the wellbeing of rightsholders. This includes identifying and addressing risks related to the right to water and healthy ecosystems, as well as the ability of environmental impacts to adversely affect the right to health.

While Article One is committed to a robust management process led by the company’s principals,  ensuring a sustainable planet is everyone’s responsibility. If you have questions or concerns related to this policy, please email chloe@articleonadvisors.com.

ETHICAL RESEARCH AND ENGAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

Article One is committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity in our research and engagement activities, including pursuing meaningful and reciprocal engagement and consultation with stakeholders. Engaging stakeholders around human rights necessitates attention to any barriers to participation – including age, gender, language, cultural beliefs and norms, among many others. As such, Article One works with local organizations to promote the inclusion of underrepresented voices in our assessments and uplifts and credits the work of others in our research.

In order to ensure we meet these standards and that stakeholders are appropriately informed and protected during any research or engagement activity, we are committed to the following principles:

• Consultations will be carried out with respect for cultural practices, beliefs, and norms of each community or group. Language, literacy levels, security, and digital access issues will be taken into account and engagement will be conducted in a way that aligns with the needs and preferences of participants.
• Transparency is an essential component of meaningful engagement and establishing trust in both directions. We do not conceal the identity of the client for the stakeholder engagement nor the objectives of the engagement.
• Participants should be provided an advance written summary of the project, proposed engagement topics/questions, and expected outcomes in a language and format they can understand.
• We ensure the anonymity of all individual participants by aggregating data and ensuring the final report contains no identifiable information. However, should expert stakeholders (or their organization) wish to be credited and acknowledged for a perspective or recommendation, this will always be offered and honored.
• Engagement is always voluntary. We work with our clients and stakeholders alike to ensure that appropriate consent is provided and that all stakeholders understand the importance of confidentiality and non-retaliation.
• To the greatest extent possible, we seek stakeholders’ participation and co-design in the structure and substance of the engagement and strive for non-extractive engagement models. We aim to provide stakeholders with multiple opportunities for input.
• We strive to use our relationships to build trust and create direct channels of communication between stakeholders and clients for mutually beneficial and productive, long-term relationships, where possible.
• To ensure reciprocity and minimize the burden placed on expert stakeholders, we share written summaries of the engagement findings and outcomes on conclusion of the project and direct compensation terms wherever possible. In all forms of engagement, we seek opportunities for reciprocity and closing the feedback loop. Compensation of directly-affected stakeholders is often not appropriate in order to protect the integrity of findings; however, participation in engagement should not compromise stakeholders’ access to their standard income or their livelihood. Compensation terms will be reviewed at various points in the engagement process and may change based on the time involved or the number of engagements throughout the project cycle.
• To ensure concerns of bias do not enter the engagement process when offering honorariums, we leverage our position as an independent third party and ask stakeholders to provide open and honest feedback.
• We provide participating stakeholders with contact information in order to share concerns or feedback related to the engagement, including sensitive information, grievances, or to report retribution.