DNFP 2020

2020 DECLARATION OF NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF THE DESCOURS & CABAUD GROUP 36 DUE DILIGENCE: Respect for Human Rights and the Environment is a subject of increasing concern for the international community, and henceforth also for companies. Due diligence is an obligation required of French companies at the head of corporate groups so as to prevent social, environmental or governance-related risks linked to their operations, and which may also extend to their subsidiaries and commercial partners. These companies are thus required to prepare and to implement a due diligence plan, both in France and in other countries, which is to include the reasonable measures of due diligence appropriate for identifying risks and preventing serious offences against human rights, fundamental freedoms, the health and safety of persons, or the environment. The French Law of 27 March 2017 created provisions for a due diligence plan to be provided by parent companies or companies at the head of corporate groups which have at least 5,000 employees in France, and those with over 10,000 employees in France having their head office in other countries, so that they may prevent, in their own activities outside France or those of their subcontractors outside France, any risk of offences against Human Rights or any health-related or environmental damage. This text was prepared in response to various different catastrophes or scandals, and particularly the Rana Plaza tragedy on 4 April 2013, when a building in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, housing textile workshops working for the account of Western customers, collapsed, causing the death of 1,129 persons out of a total of nearly 4,000 buried in the wreckage. This event led to an international raising of awareness concerning the working conditions of the subcontractors of large European industrial groups, and led French legislators to install a duty of due diligence. All companies concerned must elaborate and effectively implement a due diligence plan. This plan includes measures designed to identify risks and prevent serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, or damage to personal health and safety and the environment resulting from the company's activities. It is a question of focusing on practices that may have led certain economic stakeholders to lack discernment in their choice of subcontractors and suppliers, and to raise their awareness of their responsibilities. The risk factors and their consequences: A due diligence fault may be committed due to a due diligence plan that is either non-existent, incomplete or ineffective. When a company that is served notice to meet these obligations fails to do so, the competent court may: • order the company to comply subject to a threat of legal penalties • define its possible civil liability in the event of environmental damage, health hazards or the violation of human rights. The company executives' criminal liability may also be incurred. Lastly, the company's image could be tarnished in the event of an established disaster in which one or more of its foreign suppliers could be deemed liable.