Three questions on human rights for:
Maria Julia Oliva, Director of Policy and Sector Transformation
Part of the UEBT leadership team, María Julia Oliva works in Amsterdam as UEBT Director of Policy and Sector Transformation as of May 2023. She previously worked with UEBT from 2009 until 2021 and last served as Deputy Director and Senior Coordinator for ABS and Policy. Her last position was Head of Policy at UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) where she oversaw a team focused on accounting for the value for biodiversity in policy and providing support to incorporate biodiversity management into policy across many sectors. She is a trained lawyer with internationally recognized expertise on legal and policy issues linked to biodiversity.
UEBT has a new human rights strategy. What does it entail? What are its main objectives?
Promoting respect for human rights has always been a part of the UEBT standard and, as such, reflected in all our programmes and activities. In 2024, UEBT adopted a strategy to define its long-term strategic direction on human rights, as well as concrete priorities for the coming years.
The context for the UEBT human rights strategy includes evolving rules and best practices on human rights, such as the 2023 update of the OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct and the 2024 adoption of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Moreover, there is growing evidence of the need to further focus on human rights in botanicals. In certain areas, botanicals involve complex supply chains and local communities particularly vulnerable in terms of human rights.
Our aim, through the UEBT human rights strategy and its implementation, is to strengthen the contribution of our membership, verification, certification and other programmes to the respect of human rights in the sourcing of ingredients from biodiversity. We seek not only to address risks, but also to address the root causes of such risks and move towards a positive impact for people in sourcing communities. Additionally, UEBT is strengthening internal capacities on human rights, both by hiring staff with human rights expertise and training staff on human rights issues. Each team within UEBT now has a human rights focal point, which then contributes to the cross-cutting coordination of the human rights strategy implementation.
What are some of the trends and improvements on human rights you have seen over the years in the companies that UEBT works with? What challenges remain?
The starting point, as I mentioned, is the awareness of the relevance of human rights in botanical supply chains. Companies are increasingly seeking to map their supply chains, understand human rights-related risks, and identify ways to address them. Increasingly, companies in the food, beauty, fragrance and flavours, and other sectors working with botanicals include human rights experts in their sustainability or responsible sourcing teams. These experts work to strengthen human rights due diligence, as well as in some cases supporting projects in prioritised supply chains.
Another important development is company engagement on sectoral initiatives on human rights. Many of the challenges for respecting human rights cannot be addressed by a single company but require action at the sectoral level. For example, UEBT is collaborating with the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) on a platform for companies to, on a pre-competitive level, identify and take measures on responsible sourcing risks in key fragrance ingredients. UEBT also acts as the secretariat for the Initiative for Responsible Carnauba, which seeks to promote good practices and address risks related to working conditions in the carnauba supply chain.
Challenges, of course, remain. Due diligence requirements may lead to increased demands for local processing companies, without sufficient understanding of local circumstances or approaches of local authorities or the investment or guidance needed to meet these demands. Supporting local companies in improving practices requires a combination of capacity-building, incentives, and collaboration. Disengagement should be the last resort. Another challenge for companies is fully integrating their human rights and their environmental due diligence processes. These processes are still often conducted by different teams, which does not recognise that biodiversity loss and other environmental degradation is often a root cause for many human rights-related risks, as well as poverty often being a driver for deforestation, unsustainable harvesting and other negative environmental practices.
Photos from left to right: Participatory risk assessment on Jasmine in India, Participatory risk assessment on various ingredients in Egypt, Field visit to rose cultivation areas in Turkey
You lead the Policy and Sector Transformation team, who is part of your team and what are the main issues you are covering?
Yes, this is probably my most demanding and interesting position at UEBT, so far. Our task is to look at evolving rules and policies related to biodiversity, human rights, and other topics in the UEBT standard and provide guidance and technical support to other UEBT teams, as well as UEBT members and partners. And I am privileged to work with an amazing group of people to take this work forward. I should say I mean here my own team and people in other UEBT teams, as well as UEBT representatives around the world, with which we coordinate all activities at national and local levels.
For example, the UEBT policy team coordinates UEBT participation in the Global Living Wage Coalition and the Living Income Community of Practice, as well as develops and pilots approaches to living wage and living income in projects around the world. Gina is our focal point on these topics, as well as the person to turn to for a sharp-eyed review and for podcasts recommendations.
We are also developing a comprehensive package to support local companies to develop and implement human rights action plans, as well as exploring how to ensure human rights risks assessments include local voices. Deniz is our human right expert, with many years of experience at the corporate and field levels. She also supports other UEBT teams with human rights questions and brings sunshine into the cloudiest of days.
Another piece of our work is analysing the implications of emerging rules on due diligence – both for our members and our own activities. Our current focus is CSDDD, as well as similar approaches around the world. Sarah is the lead on the due diligence work, which is great given her legal training and experience. She is also a great ice-skater, despite having grown up in much warmer latitudes.
Other topics within my team’s work, on which I take the lead, include the Nagoya Protocol and its implementation through national rules on access and benefit sharing, compliance with international and national rules on endangered species, and sectoral working groups and corporate initiatives on biodiversity and nature more generally.
