Newsletter

The Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) conducted a human rights impact assessment (HRIA) to become recognized as a leader in human rights management in 2022. The HRIA 2022 comprised 10 sections and 115 indicators in total to identify potential human rights risks. Taken by only one department in the previous year, 10 departments participated in the assessment in 2022, and a survey on human rights aareness for employees to determine their level of human rights was newly conducted.

 HRIA provides basic information for establishing plans to prevent and lessen human rights violations by identifying the managerial directions for human rights and improvement of institutions at the NAHF, and enhancing the human rights of NAHF employees. The ultimate goal of HRIAs is the improved human rights of all employees.

Efforts of NAHF for human rights management

 The NAHF strives to create an organizational culture that puts value on the dignity and value of employees. To realize this, it conducts an HRIA every year and accepts the recommendation for improvement according to the result. It also actively establishes and promotes countermeasures. In 2022, more efforts were made to establish an institutional foundation through the enactment or revision of a human rights management statement and code of conduct for human rights management and the organization of a human rights management committee, according to the results of the actions taken for HRIA in the previous year. The “Human Rights Management Statement” was renamed “Human Rights Policy Statement” with more contents added.

Result of the HRIA 2022

 The result of the organizational assessment of 2022 indicates no negative assessment, especially in five out of 10 areas: “non-discrimination of employment,” “prohibition of child labor,” “guarantee of occupational safety,” “protection of the human rights of local residents,” and “guarantee of environmental right.” Meanwhile, other indicators for the “establishment of a human rights management system,” “guarantee of freedom of association and collective bargaining,” “prohibition of forced labor,” “responsible supply chain,” and “protection of the human rights of customers” received negative feedback indicating “needs improvement” or “no.”

As for the 115 indicators evaluated by the departments at the NAHF, 81.7 percent gave positive feedback answering “yes,” while 2.5 percent answered “needs improvement” and 0.7 percent replied “no,” making up just 3.2 percent of negative feedback. This can be seen as a result of actions taken by the foundation on the recommendations for improvement after the HRIA in 2021, further expanding and strengthening various institutional foundations for preventing human rights violations and having a positive impact on the human rights protection of employees and stakeholders.

HRIA analysis and improvement measures

 Through the HRIA analysis conducted in 2022, the foundation intends to protect the human rights of individual employees and suggest ways to nurture a human rights-friendly organizational culture.

1) Ways to improve the establishment of a human rights management promotion system

① Expansion and strengthening of the operation of the Human Rights Management Committee: Expand regular meetings of the Human Rights Management Committee from once a year to twice a year (first and second half of the year) so that the Human Rights Management Committee can take an interest in and contribute to the progress of human rights management and the plans for and results of HRIAs.

② Disclosure and promotion of HRIA results: In accordance with the Human Rights Management Implementation Guidelines, publicize the result of every HRIA through the website and press releases to show the foundation's performance on human rights management.

③ Modification and supplementation of HRIA indicators: Depending on the level of implementation of human rights management and the result of HRIA inspections in the future, identify ways to make phased improvements, such as identifying HRIA indicators that lack suitability with the reality or characteristics of the foundation and making necessary modification or supplementation.

④ Promotion of investigation on the status of human rights: Conduct an investigation on the status of human rights that monitors the human rights situation of internal and external stakeholders of the foundation every five years.

⑤ Substantiation of education related to human rights management: Designate a person in charge of human rights education, improve the education promotion method, extend hours for pre-education on HRIAs, and actively guide them.

⑥ Expansion of subjects for HRIAs: Expand the scope of subjects for HRIAs, and hold regular human rights-related surveys that reflect the new human rights issues of the foundation.

2) Need for a procedure to remedy human rights violations

 The NAHF puts every effort into improving the institution and increasing the effectiveness of the human rights violation remedy system. However, as seen from the previous HRIAs, the foundation intends to propose ways to overcome the current situation, where there are more negative respondents than positive respondents on the independence of the NAHF human rights violation remedy system.

① Assignment of dedicated personnel for consultation and investigation of human rights violations: As an organizational measure to enhance the independence of human rights violation remedy procedures, it is necessary to reform the organization by assigning dedicated personnel capable of consulting and investigating human rights violations and installing or designating a dedicated department.

② Active education and promotion on the human rights violation remedy system: As 31 percent of NAHF employees are not aware of the foundation's human rights violation remedy service, it is necessary to educate them and promote the human rights violation remedy system. A possible measure would be making and distributing an introductory booklet or promotional leaflet for easy access to employees and stakeholders. Or the website can add a tab than introduces the human rights violation remedy procedures and receives reports and applications.

③ Human rights education for all employees: A human rights education must be held every year for all employees to disseminate the procedures for human rights violation remedy and share cases of consultation, reporting, and remedy, which can facilitate in ensuring practical and effective human rights violation remedy procedures. 

 As mentioned above, the NAHF went over the ways to improve the human rights management system. The foundation hopes that the system facilitates the establishment of human rights management plans for 2023 and that it can lead to creating an organizational culture that considers human rights to enhance the job satisfaction and quality of life of all employees.