Human Rights

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) establish States’ duty to protect human rights, companies’ responsibility to respect human rights, and the need for mechanisms to hear and remedy victims of such violations.

Accordingly, Eletrobras has undertaken commitments and promoted actions to advance human-rights work in its relationships with diverse stakeholders, with particular emphasis on employees, suppliers, partners and communities (with a particular focus on vulnerable groups ).

We are developing a robust Human Rights Framework that includes:

• Cross-cutting risk assessments covering 100% of our operations to identify salient human-rights risks and propose mitigation measures and a Priority Issues Action Plan for direct engagement with rights-holders;
• Alignment of grievance mechanisms with the UN Guiding Principles;
• A remediation and reparation handbook;
• Review of Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) processes;
• Creation of a data lake to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).

To guide our work, we aim to adopt the tools defined by the UN Guiding Principles.

Policy Commitment 

In 2018 we incorporated Thematic Human Rights Guidelines into the Eletrobras Corporate Social Responsibility Policy. In 2024 we launched our Human Rights Policy .

The Policy sets out directives to ensure respect for human rights across our activities and operations and in our relationships, through effective management systems, structured human-rights due-diligence processes and listening mechanisms designed to prevent, identify, mitigate, address and monitor risks and adverse impacts. 

It applies to employees, leadership, governance agents and, where applicable, our partners across all territories in which we operate, and its observance is recommended to other stakeholders.

Our Code of Conduct also reaffirms a commitment to respect people and human rights, promoting principles and practices and refusing to condone any violations within our sphere of influence.

Human Rights Due Diligence 

Eletrobras conducts Human Rights Due Diligence - HRDD to identify risks and adverse impacts in its own operations, equity interests and value chains. The process results in control, monitoring and mitigation measures for identified risks, as well as accountability and communication.

The assessments carried out consider workers, suppliers, and communities (especially vulnerable groups) and aim to verify the occurrence of the following issues: forced labor, child labor, freedom of association, right to collective bargaining and discrimination, in accordance with our Human Rights Policy. 

Own operations

In July 2023 we carried out, as a pioneer initiative, a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) of the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex, which comprises our oldest operating plants. The initiative was independently conducted by two contracted consultancies and involved listening to multiple stakeholder groups, including employees, service providers and local leaders. This was the first independent HRIA in the Brazilian electricity sector — a milestone that reinforces our leadership role on corporate human-rights agenda.

The company identified significant controversies related to human rights in 14.51% of its power generation plants.

Equity interests (SPEs)

In partnership with CEPEL (Electric Power Research Center), Eletrobras developed a HRDD methodology adapted to company projects and Special Purpose Entities (SPEs). The first stage, applying an HRDD questionnaire, has already been completed for 100% of the SPEs.

Following analysis of responses, individualized engagement with each SPE began, supporting work to address risks, impacts and controversies and to identify the relevant stakeholders. Eletrobras is currently engaging with 7 SPEs out of a total of 39 clusters [1].

CEPEL is developing a system to improve the management of human-rights risks and impacts in SPEs.

The company identified significant controversies related to human rights in 21% of its non-controlled operations.

[1] Cluster: counting in clusters groups SPEs that have subsidiaries, so that only one SPE is counted per cluster. Eletrobras had a stake in 39 special purpose entity clusters.

Value Chain

Regarding HRDD for Tier-1 suppliers (conducted from 2021 to 2023): of 427 suppliers notified, 374 answered the questionnaire and 112 presented human-rights risks.  

Listening and Monitoring Mechanisms

In 2018, based on our communication channels with society, Eletrobras defined the types of occurrences that should be considered human-rights violations.

Eletrobras maintains an Ombudsman Channel  and an independent Reporting/Whistleblowing Channel, initiatives intended to improve stakeholder relationship management and increase transparency. These channels handle requests for information and questions about the company’s various activities, and they register any alleged human-rights violations. 

Participation in Human Rights Working Groups

1. UN Global Compact — Human Rights Working Group for the Electric and Energy Sector (Brazil)

To advance the human-rights agenda nationally, we lead the Working Group (WG) on Human Rights for the Electric and Energy Sector of the UN Global Compact in Brazil, which brings together more than 30 sector companies. Periodic meetings are held to develop integrated actions on human-rights topics.

​​​

2. Accessibility and Inclusion Working Group

In 2023 we created the Accessibility and Inclusion WG to promote the full participation of people with disabilities (PWD) in employment, including among the workforce of suppliers and third parties. Its mandates include awareness-raising and capacity-building actions; identifying access barriers for PWD and promoting their full professional and social inclusion; reviewing accident-prevention and health-promotion policies; following studies of new projects; and proposing regulatory updates. The WG was launched on International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3), with a public discussion on the topic.

3. Suppliers Working Group

Eletrobras’s Supply Logistics Policy requires our contracts to respect human rights, guarantee occupational health and safety, ensure worker welfare, promote gender and racial equality and respect diversity, and encourage local development. In addition, our Supplier Code of Conduct (revised in 2022) prohibits child, degrading, slave or forced labor, including involuntary prison labor; prohibits sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in company processes or supply chains; and requires dignified working conditions, including for subcontracted companies. The policy also prohibits discrimination based on color and race, marital status, physical and cognitive condition, age, religion, sexual orientation, social class and other grounds.

Within this context, the Social Responsibility area participates in the Suppliers WG so that a human-rights perspective is integrated into strategic decisions affecting this stakeholder group.

SEE ALSO 

• Social Actions and Projects 

• Gender, Race Equity and Diversity 

• Environment 

​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​