October 2018

The automotive sector has received less scrutiny on human rights than other sectors such as textiles or extractives, for a variety of reasons. However, it has a vast global footprint through production facilities and supply chains with numerous areas of risk for human rights harms, as illustrated by allegations covered by the Resource Centre. As the sector is stepping out of the diesel scandal and entering new areas of production including electric vehicles, this is a key moment for it to examine its human rights practices and adopt robust human rights due diligence. 

This brief serves as a snapshot of human rights in the automotive sector based on company responses and other data collected by the Resource Centre. It provides an overview of company responses to human rights allegations, case studies of alleged abuses, positive company actions, and guidance materials to improve human rights due diligence in the automotive sector. 

This briefing was made possible thanks to funding from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Read the brief