Sustainability

Global Human Rights Principles

Amazon is committed to respecting the fundamental dignity of people throughout our entire value chain.

Our commitment

Amazon is committed to respecting internationally recognized human rights as defined by international standards and frameworks developed by the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Core Conventions of the ILO; and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

We commit to aligning our approach with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and to embedding respect for human rights throughout our business activities: from creating, sourcing, and selling products and services—including clothing, home goods, digital technologies, entertainment, and healthcare—to preparing and delivering packages to our customers.

We continuously evaluate our operations and value chain, engaging stakeholders to identify, assess, prioritize, and address salient human rights risks, specifically those related to workers, customers, and people who live in communities connected to our business. When applicable law conflicts with these Principles, we follow the law while looking for ways to respect internationally recognized human rights.

Our workplace

We are committed to respecting the human rights of all workers and providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace.

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A person wearing a yellow safety vest climbs a ladder.
A person wearing a yellow safety vest climbs a ladder.
A person wearing a yellow safety vest climbs a ladder.
A person wearing a yellow safety vest climbs a ladder.
A person wearing a yellow safety vest climbs a ladder.
  • We strive to be the global benchmark for safety excellence across all like industries. We provide a clean, safe, and healthy work environment, and the health, wellness, and safety of our teams is our top priority.  Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy workplace with appropriate rules and practices for reporting and preventing accidents, injuries, and unsafe conditions, procedures, or behaviors. We develop initiatives to support the well-being of our workforce, offering learner-centered safety training and investing in technologies, controls, and solutions to reduce and eliminate safety risks for our teams.

  • We are committed to diversity and inclusion throughout our business. We seek individuals from all backgrounds to join our teams, and we encourage people to bring their authentic, original, and best selves to work.

     

  • We do not tolerate discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, the presence of any physical, sensory, or mental disabilities, age, political opinion, pregnancy, citizenship, migrant status, veteran status, ethnicity, ancestry, caste, marital or family status, or other legally protected status in hiring and working practices, such as recruitment, job applications, promotions, job assignments, training, wages, benefits, and termination. Our aim is to ensure employment decisions and actions are based only on business-related considerations—focused solely on an individual’s ability to perform the work, not their personal characteristics. We do not tolerate violent or threatening behavior or harassment.
  • We do not tolerate child labor, involuntary or forced labor, human trafficking, or modern slavery in any form—including slave labor, involuntary or exploitative prison labor, indentured servitude, or bonded labor—in our operations or value chain.
  • We value worker feedback and rely on it as a key input to understand and address our human rights risks. We respect the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and workers’ right to join, form, or not to join a labor union or other lawful organization of their own selection, without fear of reprisal, intimidation, or harassment. We provide workers with access to effective grievance mechanisms and remedial action for human rights issues, including through Amazon’s Human Rights and Environment Complaints web form, here. We provide training to Amazon employees on topics covered within the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, including how to submit anonymous complaints to Amazon’s third-party Ethics Hotline. We also believe it is in employees' and the company’s best interests to continue direct communications.
    Read our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics  

Our suppliers

At Amazon, we are committed to providing products and services that are produced or supplied in a way that respects human rights and the environment and protects the fundamental dignity of workers. 
We require all suppliers of goods and services for Amazon to respect human rights, including providers, vendors, selling partners, contractors, and subcontractors. We engage with suppliers committed to these same principles. Amazon’s Supply Chain Standards set forth requirements governing labor standards and working conditions. We implement this commitment through dedicated programs that communicate our expectations to the third parties we work with, monitor working conditions where products are made or services provided, implement plans to address issues and make improvements where necessary, and engage with stakeholders working to address specific and systemic issues.
Download Supply Chain Standards Download Supply Chain Standards

Our customers

Amazon is committed to respecting the human rights of our customers. 
We put our customers at the heart of everything we do and relentlessly innovate to meet their needs, enrich their lives, and make every day better. We approach our technology design with a focus on privacy, safety, security, access to information, and free expression.

Communities where we operate

We recognize that our business activities may affect communities where we operate. 
We are continuously working to improve our approach to understanding and addressing human rights-related risks where we do business. We respect the right to a clean, safe, sustainable environment and respect the rights of people and their communities to protect themselves from or adapt to the effects of climate change.

Our approach

We embed respect for human rights throughout our business activities, and we work to engage with partners and suppliers that are also committed to respecting human rights. Our approach to deliver on these commitments is aligned to the UNGPs and has five pillars:

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  • Our efforts are anchored in policies that set foundational human rights commitments and apply across our business operations and value chain. We develop policies through an established process that involves engaging with internal and external stakeholders, assessing human rights risks, and monitoring evolving international and human rights standards, regulations, and industry best practices. 

  • As a global company, we recognize the responsibility and opportunity we have to establish governance mechanisms and raise awareness among our employees on human rights issues. Our human rights officer directs a central team that works across the company to conduct human rights due diligence and integrate respect for human rights into business decisions, and we offer training curricula to employees. Amazon teams provide updates on progress to a committee of the Amazon Board of Directors that has oversight on human rights policies and initiatives.

    Read more about our business in our 10K

  • We’re committed to identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and addressing adverse human rights impacts connected to our business, and we continuously work to improve our approach.

    Within Amazon’s own operations, we deploy a variety of mechanisms to conduct due diligence, assessing and responding to risks across the company. We use human rights saliency assessments to assess enterprise-wide risks and use both saliency assessments and human rights impact assessments to assess risks specific to Amazon businesses, including in the sectors and the countries where we operate. Amazon businesses work toward integrating these Principles into their operations and business relationships by conducting human rights risk assessments, remedying identified issues, and integrating human rights risk management systems.

    In our supply chain, we assess and respond to risk by leveraging internal and external data and guidance from stakeholders, including industry experts, civil society groups, and nongovernmental organizations. We engage directly with suppliers and their workers, and conduct independent audits to verify compliance with our Supply Chain Standards. We work with suppliers on appropriate remediation measures and offer partnerships and programs to help them address risks and invest in worker well-being.

    We’re committed to growing and adapting our work to evolving challenges—and helping others do so as well.

  • Human rights risks are systemic and complex, and addressing them requires us to reach outside of our own operations. Engagement with a range of external stakeholders (e.g., public, private, and civil society) is important to identifying positive outcomes for people across our business and key to our human rights due diligence approach.

  • By listening to the people connected to our business, we can better understand their experiences and concerns, address risks they face, remedy issues, and ultimately improve our workplace experience. We are committed to establishing effective grievance mechanisms and remediation procedures to promote respect for human rights and expect every supplier in our supply chain to provide their workers access to effective grievance mechanisms.

    Anyone who wishes to submit a concern about a human rights or environmental issue related to Amazon’s business or supply chains may use Amazon’s Human Rights and Environment Complaints webform, here, to report directly to Amazon.

Published January, 2025

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