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Sustainability
Sustainability

Human rights

Amazon’s operations impact millions of people worldwide, including employees, suppliers and their workers, customers, and communities. With this reach, we play a critical role in respecting and promoting human rights.

Progress

10 businesses across Amazon underwent human rights and environmental due diligence assessments

9/10 high-risk supplier sites were correctly flagged by AI experiments in our audit program while keeping false alarms low 

100% of the 850 human rights and environmental complaints submitted in 2025 have been addressed by Amazon

Our approach

We believe every individual deserves to have their fundamental dignity respected. To achieve this, we embed respect for human rights throughout our business activities, and we work to engage with partners and suppliers that align with our values.

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.

Our businesses span industries as different as grocery, logistics, and consumer devices—each with its own risk profile and operating context. That's why we don't take a one-size-fits-all approach: instead, we have established an enterprise-wide methodology and tools while empowering each businesses to identify and prioritize business-specific salient risks.

We implement this approach through five core pillars:

  • Developing and maintaining strong policies and standards
  • Embedding human rights into our business activities and decision-making
  • Identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and addressing risk
  • Engaging with stakeholders
  • Improving access to effective grievance mechanisms and remediation

Our core pillars

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  • We documented our long-standing commitment to human rights in the form of Amazon’s Global Human Rights Principles, which reflect the foundation of how we embed respect for human rights throughout our business.  

    In addition, Amazon’s Supply Chain Standards, available in 23 languages and dialects, outline our expectations for suppliers.

    Our annual Modern Slavery Statement details our progress and ongoing efforts to combat modern slavery.

  • Respect for human rights is everyone’s responsibility at Amazon. We have a central team of experts who work across the company to help conduct human rights due diligence, supporting businesses to integrate human rights principles into their operations. Thid includes:

    • Risk management systems grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and calibrated to business-specific risk profiles and operational realities
    • Employee training on Amazon’s human rights commitments, including forced labor training in seven languages and responsible purchasing training for sourcing and procurement teams.
    • Supplier and selling partner access to human rights programs and e-learning through Amazon's Sustainability Exchange, a free, publicly available website offering Amazon-developed tools to help other companies advance their sustainability initiatives.
    • Responsible disengagement guidelines that help mitigate human rights risks during supplier exits, recognizing that disengagement should be used only as a last resort when remediation and engagement efforts have been exhausted.

  • Identifying and prioritizing the most salient risks connected to Amazon’s operations and business relationships is central to our human rights due diligence. Guided by the UNGPs, we use a people-centered saliency framework to focus on the risks most likely to occur and where potential impacts could be most severe.

    This approach helps us understand where adverse human rights impacts may arise in connection with business activities and relationships, and informs actions to prevent, mitigate, and address them.

    Since our enterprise-wide saliency assessment in 2020, we have conducted business-specific due diligence assessments across 10 business units including AWS, Operations, Stores, Grocery, and Global Real Estate. 

    Leveraging AI to build accurate risk insights and assess performance

    We leverage thousands of supplier audits annually completed by independent audit firms covering labor rights, ethics, environment, and health and safety—and work with suppliers to remediate identified issues.  

    To strengthen this work, Amazon is investing in AI and machine learning tools to complement—rather than replace—human judgment and expertise. Early results include:

    • AI models analyze data from tens of thousands of historical social audits to identify risk patterns.
    • Approximately nine out of every 10 high-risk supplier sites are correctly flagged. 
    • Generative AI tools enable rapid review of audit reports to identify where action is needed. 

    Learn more about how Amazon is experimenting with AI to advance human rights. 

  • We work with a number of partner organizations and rely on experts and affected rights holders to inform and improve our approach and assess whether our efforts have the intended impact. This includes launching multi-stakeholder initiatives and participating in industry coalitions, where we leverage our expertise to inform policy development, strengthen standards, and shape strategies that drive positive change.  

    For example, Amazon participates at the following multi-stakeholder initiatives:

    -Tech Against Trafficking
    Amazon serves in a leadership role on the Steering Committee of Tech Against Trafficking, a coalition of technology companies collaborating with global experts to help eradicate human trafficking using technology. Amazon helped shape the coalition’s long-term vision—including hosting the 2022 and 2024 TAT Summits—where members aligned on building a federated data ecosystem to work towards connecting fragmented datasets, protecting survivor privacy, and enabling smarter, faster interventions.

    As part of this collaboration, we are leading efforts to develop a comprehensive forced labor data standard, supporting the creation of actionable gap analyses, and championing public-private partnerships that improve the global response to human trafficking.

    -Global Data Partnership Against Forced Labour
    Amazon joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Data Partnership Against Forced Labour, which brings together business and global leaders to advance bold new approaches in leveraging data and AI and accelerating accountability into real progress toward a world free of forced labour.

    Data fragmentation remains one of the most persistent challenges today. Human rights abuses often remain hidden because information is incomplete, inconsistent, or siloed across owners, countries, and systems. It’s collected through incompatible formats. Without shared data standards, trusted mechanisms for collaboration, and strong privacy safeguards, efforts to address risk remain siloed and reactive. Companies may identify issues in one facility or region but lack the interoperability and insight to act collectively or upstream, where many risks begin. This is why focused, cross-sector collaboration is urgently needed to unlock the value of data while protecting and rights holders. Amazon joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Data Partnership Against Forced Labor, which brings together committed leaders across sectors to accelerate responsible data sharing, bridge data gaps and drive collective action against forced labor.

    Learn more about the first pilot.

  • 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.

    Human rights and environmental complaints procedure

    We welcome anyone—including employees, contractors, suppliers, customers, and community members—to share concerns with us through our  Human Rights and Environmental Complaints Form, available in 19 languages and dialects globally. If you have a concern about a human rights or environmental issue related to our business or supply chains, we strongly encourage you to submit it. Key outcomes in 2025:

    • We addressed 100% of the 850 human rights and environmental complaints submitted in 2025
    • We offer support to suppliers through training, worker engagement tools, and connection to third-party grievance mechanisms such as Ulula.
    • Insights from grievance mechanisms inform and strengthen our human rights due diligence.

Case studies

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A view from above shows a person handling cotton.

Amazon Private Brands: Health and safety

Working with international health organization PATH, Amazon launched a comprehensive worker well-being initiative in 2024. This program provides health screenings, training, and digital learning tools to enhance workplace health and safety. To date, over 2,200 workers have received health screenings and 69 factory managers have completed workplace health training. The digital learning platform has now been transferred to Vietnam's National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health to benefit factories nationwide. 

Watch the video to learn more about this initiative.

Harvesting the future – Cotton in India

In 2024, Amazon joined Harvesting the Future – Cotton in India, a three-year multi-sector initiative coordinated by the Fair Labor Association to strengthen working and living conditions in cotton-farming communities in Madhya Pradesh. Together with 25 global brands, Indian suppliers, and local partners, the initiative aims to address systemic risks in cotton supply chains and support long-term, community-led improvements.
A small group sits on the ground together.

Harvesting the future: Cotton in India

Overview
In 2024, Amazon joined Harvesting the Future (HTF) – Cotton in India, a three-year multi-sector initiative coordinated by the Fair Labor Association to strengthen working and living conditions in cotton-farming communities in Madhya Pradesh. Together with 25 global brands, Indian suppliers, and local partners, the initiative aims to address systemic risks in cotton supply chains and support long-term, community-led improvements.

Understanding the challenge
Cotton farming in India often relies on informal labor and complex subcontracting structures, making human rights risks difficult to identify and address. Stakeholders raised concerns that highlighted systemic risks in the region's cotton sector and the need for coordinated, sector-wide efforts to support safer and fairer working conditions for farming communities.

About the initiative

HTF is a three-year program (2024–2027) operating across more than 30 villages in Khargone and Barwani districts. The initiative brings together 25 global brand, two Indian garment and textile manufacturers, and several civil-society and local implementing partners.

HTF builds on an eight-month scoping study conducted by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) in 2024, which engaged over 350 stakeholders. Findings from the FLA’s scoping study informed the program’s priorities and design.

Amazon’s contribution
Through HTF, Amazon supports coordinated interventions across five priority areas:

1. Child protection

Supporting the development of child-labor-free zones and strengthening access to education. In the initiative's first year, 146 children were enrolled or re-enrolled in formal education, with a 93% academic retention rate among those mainstreamed into school.

2. Fair wages and decent work

Promoting progress toward existing legal minimum wages, supporting clarity in contracts, and improving labor-intermediary practices. In the first year of the project, over 1,600 farmers were oriented on minimum wage standards and labor rights.

3. Health and safety

Training of farmers and workers on health and safety and chemical management including use of appropriate personal protective equipment and farm-level monitoring. In the first year of the project, more than 2,200 farmers were trained on occupational health and safety practices, and 825 farms were monitored for health and safety practices.

4. Social protection access

Helping workers understand and enroll in applicable government schemes and entitlements. In the first year of the project, over 4,100 individuals were supported in accessing government social security schemes.

5. Transparency and traceability

Improving visibility from farm to ginner through farm-level monitoring, stakeholder engagement, and documentation practices. The project established a community grievance mechanism which achieved a 98% resolution rate during the first year of the project.

These areas reflect Amazon’s broader human rights priorities: strengthening due diligence, improving working conditions, and supporting protections for vulnerable workers and communities in upstream supply chains.

Expected outcomes (2024–2027)
By the end of the three-year initiative, HTF aims to:

-Establish child-labor-free zones in at least 16 villages


-Ensure 90% of surveyed community members demonstrate increased understanding of child-labor risks


-Support 95% of farmers and workers to adopt improved health and safety practices


-Advance wages toward legal minimum levels


-See 85% of farmers report improved agricultural practices and income


These targets address the key risks identified in the scoping study and support long-term improvements for farming families.

Looking ahead
Amazon will continue participating in HTF through 2027, collaborating with peers, suppliers, and local organizations to monitor progress and support long-term improvements. Lessons from this initiative will help inform Amazon’s broader human rights due diligence approach and efforts to strengthen protections in upstream supply chains.

Learn more

Supporting worker protection in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s ready-made-garment (RMG) sector employs millions of workers. When a serious workplace accident occurs, the physical and financial impact can be long lasting. Amazon joined the Employment Injury Scheme (EIS) Pilot in 2024 alongside 92 other brands. Companies’ participation helps fund benefit payments for eligible workers and their families during the pilot phase—supporting ongoing worker protection in the event of serious workplace accident. 
A group of people raising their hands.

Supporting worker protection in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s ready-made-garment (RMG) sector employs millions of workers. When a serious workplace accident occurs, the physical and financial impact can be long-lasting. As the industry has grown rapidly, there has been increasing recognition—across government, industry, and international stakeholders—that injury compensation systems need to evolve to better address the long-term needs of workers and families following a serious workplace accident.

To help address this systemic industry gap, the Government of Bangladesh, the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) launched the Employment Injury Scheme (EIS). They developed this initiative together with employer organizations—including the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association—as well as workers’ organizations.

The EIS Pilot tests a transitional social insurance model that provides ongoing financial support to workers and their families following a serious workplace or commuting accident. Benefits are calculated in alignment with the standards of ILO Convention 121, the Employment Injury Benefits Convention. The scheme is governed through a tripartite structure involving government, employer, and worker representatives, and currently voluntary contributions from international brands help bridge financing while national systems and statutory funding arrangements are established. The pilot is designed to pave the way for a permanent, statutory EIS in Bangladesh.

Our support
Amazon joined the EIS Pilot in 2024 alongside 92 other brands. Companies’ participation helps fund benefit payments for eligible workers and their families during the Pilot phase—supporting ongoing worker protection in the event of serious workplace accident. This complements our responsible sourcing expectations and human rights due diligence efforts in Bangladesh, and is consistent with our work to support safe and healthy workplaces in our supply chains.


Working alongside government, employer, and worker organizations, as well as peer companies, Amazon is supporting an industry-wide approach intended to support the transition to a nationally owned, statutory scheme.

Pilot achievements
The EIS Pilot is designed to support Bangladesh’s export-oriented ready-made garment sector, which employs approximately 4 million workers. As implementation has progressed, publicly available data illustrates how the model is functioning in practice:

- More than 92 international brands, including Amazon, are now participating.
 

- External analyses estimate that the scheme is currently available to approximately 4 million workers, with enrollment continuing to scale.
 

- The pilot has begun providing regular monthly payments to eligible workers and dependents, with benefits calculated in line with ILO Convention 121.
 

- The scheme covers both on-duty and commuting incidents, broadening protection beyond traditional workplace accidents.
 

- Case verification, assessment, and payment processes operate under the oversight of the tripartite governance structure involving government, employer, and worker representatives.
 

- The Pilot represents a shift from inconsistent compensation toward a more predictable, sector-wide approach to employment injury protection aligned with international labour standards.

Looking ahead
The EIS Pilot is a transitional mechanism toward a nationally owned, statutory employment injury scheme in Bangladesh.


Institutionalization is already underway. The Government of Bangladesh has expressed its intention to transition from the pilot phase to a permanent national system by July 2027. During this interim period, participating brands play a time-bound role in helping maintain continuity of benefit payments while financing arrangements and national implementation mechanisms are finalised by the Government of Bangladesh.

The long-term objective is a fully nationally financed and administered social insurance system that delivers consistent, reliable protection in the face of workplace injury—benefiting workers, employers, and the broader economy.

While further work remains, the EIS Pilot demonstrates how coordinated, cross-sector collaboration can help move from short-term responses toward more durable systems of worker protection in one of the world’s most significant manufacturing regions. Amazon aims to support this transition as part of our as part of our work to support safe and healthy workplaces in our supply chains.

Learn more

Advancing a just transition

We aim to integrate human rights due diligence into our decarbonization efforts, so we can better identify how our shift to a green economy might affect the communities in our value chain and drive positive outcomes.

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  • As one of the world’s largest corporate purchasers of carbon-free energy, as recognized by BloombergNEF, we believe energy can be strategically deployed to maximize benefits for communities across Amazon’s value chain. To support this, we’re assessing where our use of carbon-free energy can have positive impacts on nearby communities, particularly those that are underserved by the current energy market.  We also work to better understand the benefits that come from our emissions reduction efforts, which is why we’re beginning to measure the positive health, biodiversity, and socioeconomic impacts stemming from the emissions reduction of Amazon’s carbon free energy portfolio.
  • Critical minerals are essential to the global economy and the clean energy transition. We are continuously assessing ways to strengthen raw material supply chains and support responsible and sustainable sourcing efforts for energy transition minerals. This includes efforts like our collaboration with Congo Power, an innovative program managed by Resolve that brings solar electricity to mining communities within the DRC, promoting energy access and improving livelihoods in critical mineral supply chains.

  • We invest in collaborations that aim to provide those impacted by climate change with access to resources that can help them develop and scale climate solutions. For example: 

    • Amazon supports the Resilient Futures Fund, an initiative managed by 2X Global that provides catalytic capital and targeted support to climate solutions led by, involving, or benefiting women and girls. In addition to financial support, Amazon serves on the fund’s Advisory Board, helping advance efforts to scale women-led climate innovation globally. Since its launch, RFF has committed more than $11 million in catalytic capital and supported 22+ grantees and 184+ organizations working on climate solutions that benefit women and girls. These efforts have helped support nearly 3,000 jobs and mobilized $10.9 million in additional climate finance. 

    • We deploy millions of dollars in AWS credits to organizations advancing key sustainability outcomes through the use of AI and other technologies.  
    Learn more

Human rights partnerships

We recognize that many human rights risks are complex issues with widespread social impacts. Addressing these risks requires cross-industry engagement to find effective solutions. We collaborate with credible, knowledgeable, and innovative industry partners around the world who share our vision.

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Supporting our supply chain

Learn more about how we support safe and healthy working conditions throughout our supply chain. 
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