Are your company practices supporting or undermining human rights?

Module Three of ETI’s Human Rights Essentials Course explores how buyer behaviour and commercial decisions can either support or undermine human rights – and what companies can do about it.

The session digs into how to engage with suppliers in meaningful ways and move beyond compliance to create lasting impact across the supply chain.

Gabbi Wass from our training partner Inherently Human introduces this practical and timely session:

“Inherently Human is a boutique consultancy supporting businesses on their human rights strategy. We're proud to deliver the Human Rights Essentials Course in partnership with ETI, helping participants go beyond theory and take meaningful action within their organisations.

Following foundational modules on due diligence (Module One) and risk and rightsholders (Module Two), Module Three turns the spotlight on the limits of audits, alternative approaches, and how internal business practices can directly shape human rights outcomes.

The module also explores Responsible Purchasing Practices (RPP) and asks:

What does it really take to improve working conditions in supply chains – and how much of that starts with buyers?”

Meet the trainer: Hilary Murdoch

Module Three is usually led by ethical trade and human rights expert Hilary Murdoch. However, for the upcoming session on 17 June, we’re pleased to welcome Louise Herring, founder of Inherently Human, as the lead trainer. With her extensive experience in responsible business strategy, Louise will guide participants through this valuable, hands-on session.

Hilary Murdoch, a widely respected ethical trade and human rights consultant, has been working at the intersection of business and human rights for more than 25 years, beginning with the consultancy Impactt and then becoming an independent consultant with a focus on food and garment supply chains.

Her mission is clear: to help businesses move beyond box-ticking compliance and start driving meaningful, measurable improvements for workers across global supply chains.

“My passion is doing work that really results in practical improvements in workers' lives,” says Hilary.

“That means developing training for internal teams, creating toolkits for suppliers, facilitating engagement between suppliers and buyers - and increasingly, supporting companies in improving their own purchasing practices.”

A career grounded in impact

Hilary has been the facilitator of the Responsible Purchasing Practices (RPP) Working Group for the past 5 years (including ETI, Ethical Trade Norway and Denmark, Fair Wear, FLA and others) and facilitator of the RPP Learning and Implementation Community for two years, a peer-learning group of 35 brands working on improving purchasing practices, in partnership with their suppliers. These roles have placed her at the forefront of a shift in how companies understand their impact.

We’ve had such rich discussions in this module - people sharing ideas, responding to each other’s questions, reflecting on what they’ve seen work.

The limits of social audits

In Module Three, Hilary addresses the fact that audits alone won’t fix human rights abuses.

“Although social audits remain a key pillar of most companies’ due diligence, it’s been recognised for years that they can potentially miss serious issues - like forced labour, harassment, discrimination, and freedom of association,” she says.

“There’s also the risk of audit fraud - fake books, coached workers. And even where issues are picked up, audits only give a snapshot. They don’t bring about improvements on their own. After all, you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it.”

Module Three challenges participants to think differently: how can businesses go beyond identifying risk to actually managing it? And what role do internal decisions - like pricing, lead times, and payment terms - play in enabling or preventing harm?

This is a crucial distinction Module Three emphasises: measuring risk isn’t the same as managing it, and checking a box isn’t the same as creating impact.

A shift toward strategic supplier engagement

Participants in Module Three learn how to use supplier visits more strategically, building lasting relationships and opening space for honest dialogue and gradual continuous improvement.

“It’s about trust and joint responsibility. Visits should involve workers and ensure their voices are genuinely heard,” Hilary explains.

“They’re also an opportunity to support suppliers in tackling root causes - especially when combined with input from local partners like trade unions and NGOs.”

She warns against treating supplier visits as just another procedural step: “It’s not just about writing a corrective action plan and filing it away. That plan needs to become part of an ongoing conversation.”

The course introduces other approaches that can be used in parallel to audits, including a variety of methodologies and organisations that help companies with ‘worker voice’ – hearing directly from workers about the issues they face and being able to respond to that. Other tools include worker training, supplier capacity building and training, and projects and initiatives to tackle a particular issue in one area/country, potentially in collaboration with other purchasing companies and a group of suppliers.

Responsible purchasing practices: From talk to action

Module Three explores the importance of Responsible Purchasing Practices: aligning commercial behaviour with human rights expectations.

“RPP is about making sure your commercial practices - lead times, sampling, payment terms, pricing - aren’t putting pressure on suppliers that contributes to violations like excessive hours or underpayment.

You can’t expect your suppliers to respect labour standards if your own behaviour is pulling in the opposite direction.”

To bring this concept to life, the course features:

Video interviews with manufacturers, candidly discussing the actions by buyers that cause the most harm
Breakout sessions for participants to explore solutions collaboratively
Case studies showing real-world shifts toward responsible practices

“We’ve had such rich discussions in this module - people sharing ideas, responding to each other’s questions, reflecting on what they’ve seen work. It’s been one of the most rewarding parts of the course.”

Measuring what matters

Human rights are notoriously hard to quantify, but that doesn’t mean companies are off the hook when it comes to measuring progress.

“You can measure carbon emissions, but it’s more difficult to measure dignity, safety, or worker voice,” says Hilary.

“Still, there are ways to monitor progress: tracking improvements over time, listening to workers, and evaluating whether your interventions are actually changing anything.”

The course equips participants with practical tools and frameworks that focus on real-world application rather than abstract metrics.

Why Module Three matters now

With new legislation rolling out globally - and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive still being negotiated - companies are under growing pressure to show not just what they know about their supply chains, but what they’re doing to improve them.

“Module Three is particularly timely,” Hilary says. “Companies need to stop depending solely on audits and start looking at what their own practices are doing to either support or undermine human rights.”

Who should take Module Three?

Hilary is clear about who will benefit from this course:

“Anyone with supply chain human rights in their role - whether it’s new to them, or they want to deepen their work beyond audits. It’s especially relevant to commercial teams, buyers, and sustainability professionals.”

Participants walk away with:

A toolkit of strategies to help improve human rights outcomes
Confidence to advocate for RPP internally
A clearer understanding of how to engage suppliers as partners, not just service providers

“I hope people leave the course with a broader view - and the confidence to bring these conversations to their leadership teams.”

Join the conversation. Drive the change.

If you're ready to move toward meaningful, lasting improvements in your organisation, join us on 17^th June 2025 for Module Three: Respecting Human Rights – Managing Risk and Measuring Progress.

training@inherentlyhuman.co.uk 
+44 (0)7813 150855