Telecommunications can serve as a powerful enabler of human rights.
 | | Ericsson believes that business has a key role in supporting human rights and has adopted a statement of commitment. On December 10, 2007, Ericsson’s CEO, Carl-Henric Svanberg, publicly pledged his support to raise awareness of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Every Human Has Rights campaign. Support the campaign by clicking on Visit the Every Human Has Rights campaign in the right hand column. |
During this anniversary year, culminating in December 2008 in Paris, Ericsson will explore how telecommunications can enable rights such as the right to health, the right to education, the right to safety and security, and the right to a livelihood. We will work with international human rights experts to demonstrate and measure the powerful impact that access to communications can have on the enablement and preservation of rights. We will also be making an internal investigation into how the business of a telecommunications vendor could potentially infringe on rights. We will focus on issues such as access to information, security and privacy.
More information on how we govern in the area of human rights can be found at Governance
Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights In 2006, Ericsson joined the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR). BLIHR is a business led organization with thirteen corporate members, and its principle purpose is to find “practical ways of applying the aspirations of the universal declaration of human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise.” BLIHR has six core work streams to proactively address human rights issues and create practical tools which companies around the world can apply in day to day operations.
Ericsson is primarily working with BLIHR in two of its work streams – ‘good governance
in sensitive countries’ and ‘emerging economies.’ These work streams are closely aligned
with Ericsson’s priorities of supporting human rights and socio-economic development
in emerging economies.
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 | Every Human Has Rights
The Every Human Has Rights campaign calls on citizens to uphold the goals of the universal declaration in their daily lives and hold governments accountable for the same. The Elders, a group of global leaders convened by Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel to address some of the major problems facing the world, became the first signatories to the online pledge of this campaign.
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