Barilla is the first Italian company to support a United Nations initiative
25 January 2018
The announcement will be made at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, during an address by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
PARMA, ITALY, January 25th 2018—The Barilla Group will be the first Italian company to support the Standards of Conduct for Business promoted by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) aimed at tackling LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and intersex) discrimination in business. The announcement will be made on Friday, January 26 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting during the “Free and Equal” Forum, where one of the speakers will be the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.
The Standards of Conduct for Business (https://www.unfe.org/standards), which have already been signed by 51 large international companies including Google, IKEA, Microsoft, and Vodafone, outline certain rules of conduct that companies should adopt toward LGBTI employees, suppliers, customers, and distributors. They range from respecting and supporting the human rights of the LGBTI community in where companies do business, to eliminating discrimination and providing support for the LGBTI workforce.
Barilla is committed to fostering and maintaining diversity and inclusion companywide. This includes ensuring the voice, perspective, and individuality of every employee, partner, and customer is respected.
As a testament to Barilla’s steadfast efforts, the company earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for four years running—2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The CEI, developed by the Human Rights Campaign (the leading American organization working for the promotion of LGBTI rights), is a benchmarking tool on corporate activities committed to furthering equality for LGBTI employees.
Further demonstrative of Barilla’s commitment to the LGBTI community around the world, the company developed an Employee Resource Group, VOCE, in five countries (USA, Brazil, France, Italy and Turkey) to counsel on LGBTI topics. And in 2017, CEO Claudio Colzani joined more than 270 executives to sign the CEO Action for D&I pledge, committing to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
And as the UN Standards of Conduct for Business indicate, companies should seize upon the many opportunities to contribute to positive social change in the communities where they do business. As an example, Barilla partners with organizations including GLAAD, Catalyst, and the Tyler Clementi Foundation in the USA, and Parks in Italy, and employees have marched in the 2017 Milano and Chicago Pride parades.
This is just one of the many initiatives implemented by Barilla to combat homophobia and intolerance in the workplace to prevent and sensitize people on the issue of Diversity and
Inclusion (https://www.barillagroup.com/en/diversity-inclusion) which is central to our company’s way of doing business.
“Barilla is more committed than ever to create a diverse and inclusive company that provides equal opportunity for our employees and embraces the differences among us as a strength that we all bring to our way of doing business: Good for you, Good for the Planet,” said Kristen Anderson, Barilla’s Chief Diversity Officer.
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