Respecting Human Rights

Globally, we have more than 20,000 employees from a variety of backgrounds, such as farming, plant breeding, engineering, marketing, environmental science, and many others working to find sustainable solutions to feed a growing world. It’s a big task and we know we can’t do it alone, so in addition to our own employees, we also work with business partners from all over the planet to help make a balanced meal accessible to everyone.

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Respecting Human Rights

Globally, we have more than 20,000 employees from a variety of backgrounds, such as farming, plant breeding, engineering, marketing, environmental science, and many others working to find sustainable solutions to feed a growing world. It’s a big task and we know we can’t do it alone, so in addition to our own employees, we also work with business partners from all over the planet to help make a balanced meal accessible to everyone.

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Working across multiple countries and languages has its challenges, but one thing we work tirelessly to ensure is consistent in every country is the protection of workers’ human rights, both for Monsanto employees and our business partners’ employees. Respecting the dignity of every person is a long-held commitment of Monsanto. To accomplish this, we have strict policies and practices in place to ensure that the fundamental human rights of workers are upheld.

Our Commitment to Human Rights

In 2006, we formalized our commitment to human rights with the establishment of our Human Rights Policy, which is guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and applies to all our sites as well as our business partners who provide manual labor for field trials and the production of seeds. Our policy outlines nine elements on which Monsanto focuses its human rights efforts. 

[unex_ce_article_image_with_subhead layer-name="Layer Name" image_id="623" image_id_filename="india-school-children.jpg" id="content_t8s8zsjsa" post_id="659" semplice_styles_background_color="transparent" semplice_styles_background_image="" semplice_styles_background_size="auto" semplice_styles_background_position="50% 0%" semplice_styles_background_repeat="no-repeat" semplice_styles_padding_top="0px" semplice_styles_padding_bottom="0px" semplice_styles_padding_left="0" semplice_styles_padding_right="0"] <ul> <li>Read the <a href="/company/commitments/human-rights/articles/10-things-monsanto-learned-while-implementing-human-rights-policy/" target="_parent">highlights</a> of what we learned since adopting our Human Rights policy.</li> <li>See our commitment to improving <a href="https://youtu.be/J0EL3j5cZb4" target="_blank">working and living conditions</a> for our employees in Argentina.</li> <li>Read about how we work to ensure the <a href="/company/commitments/human-rights/articles/helping-ensure-human-right-water/" target="_blank">human right to water</a>.</li> </ul> [/ce_article_image_with_subhead]

Nine elements of human rights:

  • Child Labor
  • Forced Labor
  • Compensation
  • Working Hours
  • Harassment and Violence
  • Discrimination
  • Safety
  • Freedom of Association
  • Legal Compliance

Our commitment in 2006 was just the starting point, and over the years we’ve worked to make big strides as a company in order to continuously improve and deepen our commitment to advancing and respecting human rights.

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