Removing discrimination against a minority group increases GDP: Fabrice Houdart

Godrej Industries, along with the UN, will be launching The Standards of Conduct for Business to tackle discrimination against the LGBTI community in corporate spaces on 12 October. Fabrice Houdart, Human Rights Officer from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, talks about the need for the manifesto. 

Please tell us about the manifesto...

The role of business in respecting and promoting the human rights of LGBTI people is a universal issue. We started developing these standards with the London-based think-tank, Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), in mid-2016 through consultations in Mumbai, New York, Kampala and Brussels. 

The five standards call for companies to have anti-discrimination policies in place, exercise due diligence and establish effective grievance mechanisms. They also urge companies to take steps to eliminate discrimination against LGBTI customers, suppliers and distributors – and to require the same of their business partners.

Most ambitiously, the standards challenge companies to stand up for the rights of LGBTI people in the countries where they do business

What is the need for such a manifesto?

The idea was to help the private sector grapple with their role in this area of human rights.

What are the benefits, internationally, that companies have reaped by building a non-prejudiced environment?

LGBTI consumers and their allies are sensitive to whether companies are on the right or wrong side of human rights. Not respecting human rights poses a number of risks and costs for business including, reputational damage, consumer boycotts, exposure to legal liability and adverse government action, adverse action by investors and business partners, reduced productivity and morale of employees.

The Business and Economic Case for including LGBTI people in society has never been so well articulated. UNAIDS just released a study estimating the global cost of homophobia and discrimination against LGBTI people at $100 billion per year. The World Bank published a study in 2014 which estimated these losses for the Indian economy at 0.1 percent to 1.4 percent of GDP per year. In most countries, such a drop in GDP is called a recession! 
The annual buying power of the global LGBT market is now estimated at US $3.7 trillion. As Kaushik Basu, the former Indian Chief Economist of the World Bank, said: “If removing discrimination against a minority group increases GDP that is good news. If enhancing justice and equality across human beings promotes GDP that is reason for celebration. But we must not argue that removing discrimination against minorities is good because it promotes GDP growth, that justice and equality are important because they lead to a higher GDP. Removing discrimination and promoting greater equality and justice are good in themselves.”

Can policies such as adoption leave, transference of PF, Life Insurance to a same-sex partner, or including health insurance for a same-sex partner be part of our HR policies? What are the hurdles?

The Standards describe several HR policies that need to be adjusted such as employment, harassment and discrimination, diversity and inclusion policies or benefits. 

In my experience, it is a low hanging fruit. Adjusting policies to be inclusive is often not costly. In addition, there are a lot of lessons learnt and experience by global and local companies in this area.