The AXA Group is committed to respecting internationally recognized human rights principles as defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the core standards of the International Labour Organization and the Guiding Principles for the implementation of the United Nations "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework ("Ruggie Principles"). Our policy (see below) also reflects our commitment to international general and sector-specific standards such as the UN Global Compact, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance.

AXA's Human Rights policy is based on an assessment we used to identify the Human rights impacted by the business activities of insurance companies (i.e. insurance, investment, own operations) and to define priority areas for Human rights due diligence at AXA. The "Responsibility to respect Human rights", as laid down in the Ruggie principles, formed the basis for this assessment. It requires that business enterprises:

  • Avoid causing or contributing to adverse Human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts when they occur;
  • Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse Human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.

The scope of the assessment thus included AXA's Human rights impacts in relation to its employees and insurance customers as well as Human rights impacts caused by AXA's business partners in the areas investment, insurance and procurement. Taking into account AXA's ability to influence compliance with Human rights standards, the analysis focused on business partners with whom AXA has a contractual relationships as well as investments where AXA has a significant level of control.

The basis for the identification of Human rights was the International Bill of Human rights consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human rights (UDHR); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR).

The list consisting of over 35 Human rights was analyzed to determine whether an insurance company could have adverse impacts on human rights or whether an insurance company would have the ability to protect or mitigate possible violations of these rights. For each Human right it was determined whether it was relevant for each of the business activities conducted by AXA. The resulting list of “relevant” Human rights (see the Policy's appendix) was then "clustered" and used as the starting point to analyze which business activities of AXA might impact the relevant Human rights identified. The following activities were considered in scope:

Insurance

Direct impacts on the Human rights of customers; indirect impacts on Human rights of others through relations with Corporate customers which are active in sectors and/or countries with high Human rights risk.

Sectors at risk

  • Agriculture and food (including retail)
  • Construction
  • Industrial manufacturing
  • Mining and metals

Investment

Indirect impacts on Human rights of others through investments in companies which are active in sectors and/or countries with high Human rights risk.

Sectors at risk

  • Agriculture and food (including retail)
  • Industrial manufacturing
  • Mining and metals
  • Oil and gas

Procurement

Indirect impact on Human rights of others through relations with tier 1 suppliers (other tier suppliers are out of scope).

Employee relations

Direct impact on Human rights of AXA’s employees.

The results of this analysis led to the development of AXA's Human Rights Policy.

Vigilance Plan

To comply with recent requirements of French "Devoir de vigilance" law, AXA has adopted a vigilance plan (the “Vigilance Plan”) that sets out how AXA has established and implemented safeguards to identify and prevent serious violations of human rights and environmental abuses.

Learn more