Our commitment to respect human rights covers all our operations, including our employees, contractors, suppliers, and neighbouring communities.

Progress

In 2018, we completed the defining of our human rights priorities with support from BSR, an international expert organisation. To reflect this, we updated and published our Human Rights Statement as a Human Rights Policy and confirmed eight Group-wide highest priority human rights:

• Health and safety
• Fair employment conditions
• Forced labour
• Freedom of association
• Non-discrimination and non-harassment
• Land and natural resource rights acquisition and management
• Grievance mechanisms
• Children’s rights (relevant to the forestry sector).

During the first quarter 2019, the identification of the cornerstones for a compliance monitoring programme on the Group’s eight highest priority human rights was finalised with a gap assessment of current monitoring and reporting processes. The next step is to address the gaps.

How we work

Human rights risks are considered throughout Stora Enso's operations – for example in investment decisions, mergers, acquisitions, and divestments.

Stora Enso's human rights due diligence procedures include:

• Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs)
• A Human rights assessment and Human Rights Action Plan
• Appropriate grievance and remediation mechanisms
• Accountability through transparent reporting 

While we respect and consider all human rights important, our identified highest priority human rights will be the primary focus of our future work. This includes our updated due diligence and monitoring programme, which will be finalised and implemented in 2019. We also aim to develop a new consolidated key performance indicator (KPI) for our human rights work during 2019 to monitor compliance with our eight highest priority human rights.

Our policies

Stora Enso’s human rights commitment covers our employees, on-site contractors, external suppliers of materials and services and our other business partners, as well as communities living near our operations. Relevant Stora Enso policies and statements on human rights include:

• Stora Enso Code
• Supplier Code of Conduct
• Human Rights Policy

Opportunities and challenges

When it comes to human rights, Stora Enso’s operations cover challenging markets such as Russia, China, Laos, and Brazil. Many of the human rights challenges we face are deeply rooted in local society and can only be effectively addressed through a longterm commitment and close cooperation with global and local stakeholders. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights emphasise that companies have an ongoing responsibility to respect human rights, even where government actions and regulatory frameworks are inadequate. Compliance with these principles requires companies to conduct human rights due diligence procedures to identify, assess, and remedy the human rights risks and impacts of their operations, products, and services.