On Wednesday, December 14, the “Companies Committed to Human Rights” distinction was awarded in the multipurpose room of the Sinaloa State Human Rights Commission.  It is worth mentioning that most of the companies awarded were from the agricultural sector of Sinaloa: Agrícola Chaparral, Agroindustrias Tombell, Agrícola El Nazario, Agrícola Paredes, and Agrícola Doble RR, accompanied by the Asociación de Agricultores del Río Culiacán (AARC) and Veggies from Mexico.

In their participation, the president of the commission, Mr. Jose Carlos Alvarez Ortega, the representative of the award winners Diego Orozco and the undersecretary of economic development of Sinaloa Ahuizotl Lopez, pointed out the importance of not only generating profitability of the companies, but to do it responsibly, being this distinction a way to share with society their good practices.

The State Human Rights Commission is a public body of the state of Sinaloa with management and budgetary autonomy, with its legal personality and assets, and its purpose is the defense, protection, observance, promotion, study, and dissemination of the human rights recognized in the Mexican Constitution, in the local constitution of Sinaloa and the international instruments incorporated into the Mexican legal system.

The Distinction Company Committed to Human Rights is a program that seeks to recognize the efforts of companies and establish mechanisms for self-management and evaluation, whose main objectives are to consolidate the commitment to policies aimed at respecting and promoting human rights within the scope of their activities; strengthen the organizational development of companies, promote due diligence processes on human rights for the identification, prevention, mitigation and compensation in case of risks due to their activities or directly related to their business operations, also support, encourage and seek peaceful resolution of conflicts arising from direct and indirect activities of the company.

This Distinction objective is to contribute to the development of socio-emotional skills of its employees concerning their work activities and contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, promote, and disseminate sustainability that represents respect for human rights as business competitive advantages and stimulate and promote practices that directly drive continuous improvement.

There are seven fundamental pillars of the distinction:

Human rights policy

Harmonious labor practices

Organizational strengthening

Inclusion

Non-discrimination

Social environment

Environmental protection

The companies interested in obtaining this distinction needs to visit the website, where a general data form is filled out and a letter of commitment is downloaded to be signed by the legal representative, as well as the privacy notice. Then proceed to answer the self-assessment questionnaire consisting of 77 items of which to move to the next phase requires a minimum of 40 points, once the necessary points are accredited an appointment is made with the company for a visit at home and to verify the evidence with which it intends to accredit the reagents.