Human Rights Due Diligence
Samsung Electronics strives to identify, prevent, mitigate, and address actual and potential impacts on human rights throughout our global operations, supply chains, and business relationships in accordance with international standards. We integrate findings and insights learned from the due diligence into our process to ensure that appropriate policies and management systems are in place. In addition, we consider enhancing due diligence in response to pertinent situations such as entering new regional markets, initiating partnerships with new suppliers, or addressing emerging human rights issues in the global landscape.
Human Rights Risk Management Process
In 2023, Samsung Electronics hosted our first human rights stakeholder workshop, bringing together experts from the International Labour Organization (ILO), and UN Human Rights Office, specialists from global NGOs and global trade union to discuss our approach to human rights due diligence. To better integrate the expert insights gathered during the event into our processes and ensure compliance with the legal requirements for corporate human rights due diligence being legislated in various countries, we began reviewing and refining our human rights risk management system in 2024.
- Identification of human rights risks
- Assessment of management priorities for identified salient human rights risks
- Development of action plans for preventing, mitigating, and addressing negative impacts
- Implementation of plans and effectiveness tracking
- Grievance resolution and provision of effective remedies
Identification of Human Rights Risks
We identified 11 salient human rights risks through a comprehensive analysis of various sources, including various human rights due diligence results, NGO reports, media articles, conversations with stakeholders, and organizational culture assessments (Samsung Culture Index). Salient human rights issues were selected with a focus on their impact not only on the business but also on people. In February 2023, we disclosed the 11 salient human rights risks as a part of Samsung Electronics Human Rights Principles.
Assessment of Management Priorities for Identified Salient Human Rights Risks
As a global company operating more than 70 countries, Samsung Electronics recognizes that priorities in managing human rights risks may vary depending on the economic, political, and cultural characteristics of each region. Accordingly, we decided to conduct Human Rights Risk Assessments (HRRA) by region. In 2024, we performed HRRA across five regions: Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America, Latin America, and Asia.
HRRA* was conducted for each region in the following steps:
- Assessd key human rights risks for each subsidiary within each region, considering risk severity and likelihood.
- Created local human rights risks assessments and subsequent regional heat map based on aggregated data, categorizing each risk into three levels: high, medium, and low.
- Discussed the human rights risk heat map through regional workshops.
- Engaged with external stakeholders.
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Severity
- Scale: The level of negative impact
(e.g. child labor in hazardous work is considered more severe than adult overtime.) - Scope: The number of affected people
- Remediability: The difficulties of addressing the potential and actual negative impact
(e.g. death is considered more severe than underpayment.)
- Scale: The level of negative impact
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Likelihood
- Business strategy: Certain business models and areas pose higher risks
- Business relationships: The capabilities of business partners in managing human rights risks and their level of awareness
- Operational context: Environmental factors in the region where the business operates
(e.g. war, armed conflict, weak rule of law, and lack of effective legislation) - Company actions: Whether risk prevention and mitigation measures have been implemented
Development of Action Plans for Preventing, Mitigating, and Addressing Negative Impacts
Samsung Electronics developed response plans to prevent, mitigate, and address the 11 salient human rights risks, alongside the heat map. As the final step of the HRRA, we communicated with external stakeholders, including international organizations, NGOs, and academic experts, to gather feedback on the region-specific human rights risk response plans. This input was incorporated into the updated response plans, which were distributed to all subsidiaries across the five regions in December 2024. To support subsidiaries in effectively implementing these plans, additional regional workshops were held in March 2025. During these sessions, we shared best pratices from subsidiaries that had successfully delivered the response plans and discussed challenges encountered during execution. The goal was to support our subsidiaries in carrying out their human rights risk management plans more effectively.
Implementation of Plans and Effectiveness Tracking
In 2013, Samsung Electronics established the first monitoring system to uphold labor and human rights and compliance management at our business sites. In 2023, we upgraded this system to the Business & Human Rights Benchmark (BHRB), which evaluates DX Division manufacturing sites’ compliance with international human rights standards, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The assessment utilizes 39 items and 159 sub-indicators across four key categories: labor and human rights, organizational culture, working environment, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We conduct annual evaluations of each business site and provide access to best practices by indicator, supporting each business site’s efforts to improve human rights initiatives.
In 2024, we conducted BHRB evaluations of the labor and human rights practices at 19 manufacturing sites and issued consulting reports for each, offering guidance on areas requiring improvement. In 2025, we plan to further systematize site operations through the use of BHRB indicators and support each site in embedding a culture of respect for human rights.
Our internal labor and human rights experts select business sites in need of improving aforementioned indicators. They review various factors such as level of respect for labor rights in the country where our business sites are in operation, organizational culture, grievances, workforce changes, potential company policy violations, and human rights risks identified in the past. This process is known as the Samsung Electronics Simplified Human Rights Impact Assessment (sHRIA), which is a streamlined version of the full Human Rights Impact Assessment conducted by external experts. sHRIA involves interviewing vulnerable groups and stakeholders to gauge the company’s potential and actual human rights impacts in its operations, suggest preventive or mitigating measures to address identified impacts, and monitor implementation.
Samsung Electronics created assessment tools and conducted on-site audits to respect the rights of vulnerable groups in accordance with international human rights standards; vulnerable groups in the company include migrant workers and female employees among others. We have audited four business sites employing migrant workers to make sure they follow our Migrant Worker Policy and Policy Implementation Guide leveraging the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) audit methodology and key industry references.
In 2024, we conducted audits to identify risk factors related to labor-management relations at our manufacturing sites. Seven DX Division manufacturing sites with a history of related grievances were selected for review. The audits focused on more than 100 checkpoints, including external factors such as inflation rates in the host country and wage levels at neighboring companies, as well as HR systems, grievance channels and employee representative bodies, communication with field managers and site heads, and the capabilities of labor-management relations personnel.
As a member of Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), Samsung Electronics is committed to implementing the RBA Code of Conduct. Every year, we complete the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) at our manufacturing sites. Furthermore, every manufacturing site is audited at least every two years, not only the sites designated as high-risk. These audits follow the standards of the RBA’s audit protocols, known as the Validated Assessment Program (VAP) or Auditee Managed Program. If any non-conformance is found, a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) shall be developed to prevent recurrences. The CAP must be reviewed and approved by audit experts, after which we ensure its implementation within the timeframe set by the RBA standards. The RBA's VAP is designed to identify potential labor standard issues within the company’s supply chain. As part of this process, certified auditors from an RBA-approved auditing firm conduct face-to-face interviews in a language understood by workers at production sites to directly gather information about their experiences.
Samsung Electronics monitors the effectiveness of its human rights due diligence activities through various methods. For example, activities related to grievance resolution are monitored through an annual employee satisfaction survey on grievance resolution. In addition, the effectiveness of anti-discrimination efforts is assessed by reviewing employee responses to relevant items in the Samsung Culture Index, an annual organizational culture survey conducted for all employees.
Medium to Long-term Goals for Human Rights
Management
| Category | 2025 | 2027 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human Rights Due Diligence on Business Sites |
90% | 92% | 95% |
| Third-Party Audits on Suppliers |
100% | 100% | 100% |
- Samsung Electronics has set a medium to long-term goal of improving its due diligence compliance rate1) at its business sites with regard to business and human rights. To this end, the company will conduct various self-assessments, including simplified human rights impact assessments, in which vulnerable stakeholders will be engaged.
- (1) 2025: Achieving a 90% compliance rate in its human rights due diligence; Simplified human rights impact assessment - six times
- (2) 2027: Achieving a 92% compliance rate in its human rights due diligence; Simplified human rights impact assessment - 10 times cumulative
- (3) 2030: Achieving a 95% compliance rate in its human rights due diligence; Simplified human rights impact assessment - 15 times cumulative
- Among suppliers that supply parts to manufacturing sites, conduct third-party audits annually on the top 90% of our suppliers(renewed every three years) selected based on annual transaction amounts and a part of high-risk suppliers(implemented immediately upon finding significant actual/potential impacts). Audits are conducted in accordance with Samsung Electronics’ Supplier Code of Conduct based on RBA criteria and processes2).
- It is calculated as the average of VAP* compliance rate across all production sites that were subject to due diligence at the baseline and previous year, taking the due diligence cycle into account * Validated Assessment Program: a standard for social and environmental assessments of the factory introduced by Responsible Business Alliance
- Document review (employee salary information, contracts, policies, etc.), Worker/manager interview (more than the square root of the total employee number), On-site audit (initial audit, closure audit), and improvements