Kumho Tire obtains human rights management certification

Kumho Tire has overhauled its systems and procedures for managing human rights risks affecting employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, and has received external certification for the effort.

The company announced Wednesday that it obtained a human rights management system certification from the Korea Management Registrar.

The certification evaluates whether a company has established and is actively operating the policies, implementation frameworks, grievance-handling mechanisms and victim-remedy procedures needed to prevent human rights violations that may arise in the course of business.

In preparation for the certification, Kumho Tire developed a human rights management policy and drew up a phased roadmap outlining its implementation goals. The company also restructured its internal systems to shift from a reactive approach — responding to individual incidents after they occur — to one that proactively identifies and manages risk factors.

The company conducted reviews of human rights risk factors across its domestic and overseas operations. It also revised grievance-handling procedures to make it easier for employees to raise concerns, and strengthened the processes for responding to and resolving reported cases.

The certification audit assessed these systems and their operational status. Kumho Tire plans to sequentially incorporate the improvement tasks identified during the human rights impact assessment and the certification process to further strengthen its management framework.

The company also intends to broaden the scope of its human rights management beyond employees to include customers, local communities and suppliers. It will continue to monitor human rights risks affecting stakeholders touched by its business operations and incorporate the findings into its environmental, social and governance management framework.

"This human rights management system certification is a meaningful achievement that externally validates our human rights management framework and how we operate it," a Kumho Tire official said. "We will continue our efforts to improve and put sustainable management grounded in respect for human rights into practice."