Respect for Human Rights

The Daiichi Sankyo Group of companies promotes respect for human rights in our business activities. The Daiichi Sankyo Group Corporate Conduct Charter specifies “respect for human rights” in article 4, “responsible procurement” in article 2, “respecting the diversity of our employees, seeking to include a diversity and ensuring a healthy and safe working environment without harassment and discrimination” in article 5 and “executives of the Daiichi Sankyo Group actively build and maintain effective governance systems to implement this Charter, ensure it is understood by all Group companies, and encourage behavior based on the principles of this Charter to the business partners of Daiichi Sankyo Group.” in article 10.
At the same time, “to respect human rights of all people and comply with labor standards” is defined in the Daiichi Sankyo Group Employee Code of Conduct that specifies the principles by which all executives and employees are expected to conduct their work.

The Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy

The Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy was approved by the Board of Directors and established in June 2020. In this policy, we commit to respect international norms and principles, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Additionally, as a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. supports the principles covering human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. We encourage all business partners, including suppliers, to follow this policy.
In addition to the United Nations Global Compact, we incorporate initiatives in our business regarding the human rights of children not only in the prohibition of child labor and the protection of young workers, but also in conducting research and development and clinical trials of pediatric formulations and vaccines in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the United Nations Children’s Rights and Business Principles. 

Human Rights Due Diligence

Human Rights Management System

After the Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy was established in fiscal year 2020, human rights issues responding team was set up as a cross-functional team under the Head of Global Corporate Strategy, and Sustainable Promotion Department serves as the administrative office. Through this system, we promote human rights related initiatives such as conducting human rights risk assessments. 

Salient Human Rights Issues

In the Human Rights Policy, we have identified salient human rights issues (high priority issues) for us, such as “improving access to health care”, “availability of pharmaceuticals”, “considerations for human rights in research and development”, “counterfeit drugs”, “protection of personal information”, “sustainable procurement”, “decent work”, “prevention of harassment”, “prohibition of child labor and forced labor”, “realization of appropriate occupational safety and health”, “freedom of association and respect for the right to collective bargaining”, “appropriate working hours and wages” and ” fair employment, compensation and development.”
 
We will continue to identify the need to review salient human rights issues through human rights risk assessments and communication with stakeholders. 

Human Rights Risk Assessment

In fiscal year 2019, prior to the establishment of the Human Rights Policy, we conducted a human rights risk assessment to examine the status of the risk management in five areas: wages, discrimination/inhumane treatment, human rights in our supply chain, human rights of participants of clinical trials, and access to healthcare. 
As the next step after the above assessment, a questionnaire survey covering human rights due diligence topics was issued to all group companies in fiscal year 2020. We reviewed survey responses as shown in table below, and found no significant issues related to ILO core labor standards, such as risks of forced labor including foreign/migrant workers or child labor, internal system to prevent discrimination and freedom of association/collective bargaining rights. We provided feedback on results of the survey to each group company in order to improve our initiatives. We will conduct the assessment on a three-year cycle.

 

Table 1
Item Contents
Dissemination of human rights policies Status of Human Rights Policy dissemination, Status of implementation of trainings related to human rights
Address to human right issues Forced labor and human trafficking, Child labor, Discrimination, Freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, Working hours, Wage and employment contract, Inhumane treatment, Privacy, Negative impact on local communities, Health and safety, Considerations for human rights in research and development
Management Stakeholder engagement, Operation of reporting channels, Status of responsible procurement

Respect for Human Rights in Procurement

In its Business Partner Code of Conduct, the Group defines its expectations to business partners that provide products and services to us to comply with and respect various international norms, including human rights. We have been conducting a periodic Sustainable Procurement Survey based on this code. We also established an internal system to address issues that may be caused by business partners in fiscal year 2020.

Sustainable Procurement

Grievance Mechanism

In May 2021, the Group introduced a new external global whistleblowing hotline (Global Hotline) for internal compliance reporting. The hotline also accepts reports and questions including human rights related concerns from people inside and outside the company on the corporate websites.

Compliance Reporting System

Education and Awareness Raising

The Group recognizes the importance of deepening the awareness on the relationship between business activities and human rights for all executives and employees in order to fulfill our responsibility on respecting human rights. We are conducting various education and training programs related to human rights. In addition, a management message is delivered every year on December 10th, the World Human Rights Day.
The following training programs related to human rights were conducted in fiscal year 2022