human rights

Based on the idea that respect for human rights is the foundation of our business activities, MITSUBISHI MOTORS supports the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC*1), in which the United Nations advocates the 10 principles in the four categories of human rights, labor, environment, and anticorruption. As a participating company, we support and respect international standards and norms such as “the International Bill of Human Rights,*2” “the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,*3” “the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work*4,” and “the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.” Based on the 10 principles of the UNGC, as a good corporate citizen we will continue our activities toward the realization of the sustainable growth of society.

We established our Human Rights Policy after consultation with experts and approval by the Executive Committee, with the aim of conducting our business activities in a manner that respects the human rights of our stakeholders. This policy outlines fundamental matters such as support and respect for international standards and norms regarding human rights, and matters for compliance. The policy also stipulates specific measures to prevent and reduce negative impacts on human rights, to provide remedial measures, and to provide education for officers and employees.

This policy has been translated into English and made available on our website to all employees of Group companies in Japan and overseas.

In the MITSUBISHI MOTORS Global Code of Conduct, “Respect Human Rights and Diversity, Provide Equal Opportunity,” specifies that discrimination, retaliation and harassment are not permitted in any form or to any extent, and that the diversity of suppliers, customers, executives, employees and local communities shall be respected in addition to respecting human rights.

Our Human Rights Policy stipulates the following content, as well as items to be complied with and addressed.

<Human Rights Due Diligence>

Mitsubishi Motors will identify, prevent, or mitigate negative impacts on human rights which may be caused by our business activities through the application and support of human rights due diligence processes.

<Remediation>

Where Mitsubishi Motors identifies that it has caused or contributed to a negative impact on human rights, we will provide for or cooperate in legitimate internal and external processes to provide remediation.

<Ensuring Transparency and Accountability>

Mitsubishi Motors will provide appropriate education or training to all the executives and employees so that this policy is embedded in our business activities. We will ensure that our group companies comply with this policy. We will also request that our suppliers comply with the "Supplier CSR Guidelines" based on this policy. In order to ensure transparency and accountability, we will disclose our initiatives on respect for human rights through our website.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS’ efforts addressing respect for human rights are mainly focused on the sustainability, human resources and procurement departments. The Executive Officer in charge of sustainability, acting as the person in charge of promoting initiatives on respect for human rights, reports the status of human rights risk assessment and related measures to the Sustainability Committee, which is held three times a year. Members of the Sustainability Committee share the details of these reports with their departments, promoting companywide efforts to respect human rights.

In addition, considering human rights violations to be a risk to the survival of the Company, we integrate human rights into the company-wide risk management systems under the Internal Control Committee, positioning them as one of the priority risks and managing them appropriately.

As for the internal system for promoting an awareness of human rights, the Corporate Officer in charge of human resources leads the promotion of awareness training. As one aspect of our human rights awareness education, human rights themes are incorporated into shared materials used in various training programs, and in each business site human resources department works to raise employees’ human rights awareness. We also participate in events held by the Industrial Federation for Human Rights, Tokyo, and the Mitsubishi Group Human Rights Enlightenment Committee (organized by Mitsubishi Group companies), of which we are a member, and attend conferences and research meetings held by other external organizations. (In FY2022, we spent a total of 70 days participating in training sessions.) We also use the latest information obtained through our participation in these events in our human rights awareness activities and utilize the knowledge we gain from these activities in our inhouse training programs.

Through a human rights due diligence framework, we work to identify negative impacts our business activities have on human rights and strive to prevent or mitigate such impacts.

Our employees are one of our crucial stakeholders and compromising their dignity and fundamental rights could lead to a decrease in engagement and have a significant negative impact on our products and quality.

Accordingly, we recognize that human rights of employees, such as labor conditions, health and safety are significant risks for our business activities and stakeholders. Based on this understanding, we conduct human rights assessments(*) as part of our human rights due diligence. In FY2021, we conducted human rights assessments at our headquarters and three domestic plants, and in FY2022, at Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (MMTh), our main production base in the ASEAN. By engaging an external evaluation organization we ensured the objectivity of the assessments and their alignment with international standards. During the assessments, we evaluated the human rights impact through employee involvement, including one-on-one interviews between evaluation organization and employees with various attributes.

The assessment conducted in FY2022 confirmed that the human rights of MMTh employees are generally in a positive state, and there were no significant impacts on the business or employees.

In our human rights assessment activities, we are working to mitigate human rights risk through the following processes.

We conduct appropriate transactions, which includes not causing human rights violations against its business partners. We determine transaction prices and delivery dates following thorough consultation with individual suppliers.
In addition, we promote two-way communication with our business partners through management based on the Supplier CSR Guidelines.
The guidelines include provisions on respect for human rights, including the elimination of discrimination and the prohibition of child labor and forced labor, and we request that suppliers take human rights into consideration. To enhance the guidelines’ effectiveness, we obtain Supplier Commitment agreements from our business partners. In addition, based on their CSR evaluations by third-party organizations, we evaluate business partners on “labor and human rights,” and we ask them to make improvements as necessary.

In order to make timely responses in cases where a human rights related issue occurs within the company, we have established internal and external consultation offices (helplines) and the MITSUBISHI MOTORS Global Hotline, which offers assistance in multiple languages for whistle blowing and consultation for employees. The MITSUBISHI MOTORS Global Hotline has established contact points in 10 countries to handle reports from employees of the Company and its major affiliates in a total of 13 languages.

We have also established the Customer Contact Center for customers and the Business Partner Helpline for suppliers. These hotlines receive reports and requests for consultations regarding human rights issues.

Confidentiality and user anonymity is guaranteed at all of these consultation offices. We ensure that whistleblowers and people who seek consultation are not treated unfairly or discriminately. If an internal investigation is deemed insufficient, and we determine that an investigation at a business partner’s company is necessary, we collaborate with the business partner’s compliance personnel and respond accordingly.

In such case, in advance of further investigation, we enter into an agreement with the business partner to strictly prohibit searching for the whistleblower based on the obtained information and engaging in retaliatory actions.