Ericsson responds to criticisms of Swedish companies' letter defending trade with Saudi Arabia despite crackdown on freedom of expression
As a leading Swedish company, Ericsson has strong support for Swedish values, including those around human rights, and this is well integrated in our company policies and culture, which we uphold in the 180 markets where we work around the world. Ericsson is also a member of the Swedish Leadership for Sustainable Development where many of the same CEOs stand up for Sustainability Leadership including human rights.
The DN article in no way undermines our commitment and position as an advocate for business human rights, and we were early adopters of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGP). We have integrated human rights into our operations in concrete ways, and work with human rights issues on a day to day basis. We have several processes in the company to evaluate and mitigate human rights risks and one is for example the Sales Compliance Process. Our recently published Sustainability & CR Report is the first Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company report to use the new Guiding Principles Reporting Framework. Ericsson has had business in markets in the Middle East for more than 100 years. In all markets we seek to uphold the same principles and standards