In keeping with our purpose, and our obligations as a responsible financial services group in, for, and across Africa, Standard Bank Group is committed to respecting the human rights of people involved in and impacted by our business. We aim to achieve a consistent approach to respecting human rights across Standard Bank.

Human rights are the basic and universal rights that underpin each person’s inherent freedom, dignity, and equality as outlined in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We have used these universal benchmarks as our starting point for defining human rights.

Our commitment to respecting human rights is embedded in our values and code of ethics and is fundamental to ensuring our legitimacy and reputation as a corporate citizen. While nation states have a primary responsibility to protect and promote human rights, we recognise that corporations are also obligated to respect human rights.

We take any adverse human rights impacts seriously. We seek to avoid human rights infringements and being complicit in the human rights infringements of other parties. Our commitment to respecting human rights is included in many of our policies and standards.

In this way, we seek to integrate respect for human rights into our day-to-day operations and in the way we do business.

We acknowledge that this is a journey, one that may differ across our regions and countries based on the institutional and regulatory setting of each country where we operate. Where local legislation may conflict with Standard Bank’s Statement on Human Rights, we will comply with the law while seeking, within our spheres of influence, to raise awareness of human rights and provide an example of good practice through our own conduct, while being mindful of the local context.