In our Integrity Code and our Principles of Social Responsibility and Human Rights, we commit ourselves to respect and uphold all internationally recognized human rights within our company as well as throughout our supply chain. All our employees and suppliers must respect and promote the human rights standards set out in our Principles of Social Responsibility and Human Rights. In a corporate context, these especially include freedom of assembly and association, prevention of child labour, free choice of employment, fair remuneration, compliance with and implementation of working time requirements, prevention of discrimination, equal opportunities and health and safety at the workplace. To this end, we have developed a due diligence approach in the form of the Mercedes-Benz Human Rights Respect System (HRRS).
This risk-based approach allows us to identify and avoid systemic risks and possible negative effects of our business activities on human rights at an early stage. In the event of potential and actual negative effects of our actions, we initiate the necessary countermeasures. The HRRS is applied both in our supply chains and in our companies in which we are the majority shareholder.
We monitor the human rights of our own employees internally via the Group-wide compliance management system. In addition, we apply specific guidelines and supplier compliance risk management in procurement to enforce compliance with human rights due diligence obligations by direct and indirect suppliers.