The pressure on companies to demonstrate respect for human rights is increasing as the link between long-term value creation and a prudent approach to human rights risks is becoming more and more established.

It is, therefore, increasingly important for companies and investors alike that companies demonstrate that they understand and navigate the business opportunities and risks related to the corporate duty to respect human rights and labour rights. Failure to do so may leave the company vulnerable to operational disruptions, litigation risk and increased scrutiny by supervisory authorities as well as reputational risk and loss of license to operate in the eyes of customers, employees, inves-tors, and business partners.

The corporate duty to respect human rights is derived from the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) , adopted in 2011. The UNGPs have set out the international standard of practice for companies to respect international human rights (including labour rights) by identifying, prevent-ing, mitigating, remedying, and accounting for human rights impacts associated with their business activities – commonly known as human rights due diligence. Though a soft law requirement under international law, the corporate duty to respect human rights has been an expectation of companies since the UNGPs was adopted in 2011. This is particularly the case for companies that publicly subscribe to these international norms.

This expectation has in recent years been underlined by the European Union’s introduction of a range of regulatory initiatives which, in different ways, seek to address the impacts that businesses have on human rights and labour rights. Two of the main developments in this area are the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) , which includes a mandatory due diligence obligation with respect to human rights, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) , which concerns disclosures on a range of sustainability matters including human rights from a double materiality perspective. The EU regulatory initiatives are largely based on the corporate duty to respect human rights as described in the UNGPs, though the human rights due diligence requirement under the UNGPs will likely be more comprehensive than the national implementation of the EU directives.

Though the corporate duty to respect human rights has been long-established, studies show that companies have not taken the necessary steps to demonstrate sufficient implementation of human rights due diligence processes in their operations. The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) has examined the public re-porting of a number of large Danish companies and provided an analysis of the human rights policies and disclosed human rights due diligence practices of these companies in 2020 and again in 2022 . The analyses indicate that more progress needs to be made in this area. This is also the case for A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S. As indicated in the 2022 DIHR analysis, A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S ranks in the top 5 of the assessed companies and has made substantial progress in this area in recent years. A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S is, therefore, well-placed to demonstrate best practice and lead the way on human rights due diligence disclosure.

A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S is a signatory to the UN Global Compact and has committed to respecting human rights, in line with the UNGPs. By strengthening its ability to document its human rights due diligence and risk management processes even further, the company would stand to benefit. Not by preempting the regulatory requirements in the EU legislation but by staying ahead of the curve in order to gain a competitive advantage.

We therefore encourage the board and fellow shareholders to consider their support for this proposal.