Human Rights

Our purpose is connecting people to greater possibility. We can only do that if we do our part to ensure basic human rights are respected and protected. As a global telecommunications and internet service provider, we can drive responsible business practices, promote transparency and comply with laws and regulations. The results can help advance well-being around the world.

As outlined in our Human Rights Policy, AT&T is committed to addressing human rights throughout our value chain. We comply with laws and regulations that relate to our business while honoring internationally recognized human rights principles, such as the United Nations (U.N.) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. AT&T identifies, mitigates and manages potential human rights risks in connection with our products, services and technologies through implementation and management of the AT&T Code of Business Conduct, our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers and our Privacy Notice. These policies apply across our global operations.

Our Human Rights Committee (HRC) has placed a continued focus on online safety and safeguarding children. In partnership with representatives from all the groups across our business that intersect with these issues, the HRC conducts ongoing human rights due diligence as defined by the U .N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These principles provide a holistic approach to all human rights issues, helping us to address the human rights risks and opportunities of our business decisions impacting our technology, products and services.

We prohibit forced labor and modern slavery in our operations and supply chain. We collaborate with the Joint Alliance for CSR to audit our supply chain, and we sit on their governing Leadership Assembly to ensure decisive action and progress.

Governance

AT&T executives across the enterprise are responsible for the governance and implementation of our Human Rights Policy as our business continues to evolve. The following executives convene to identify and mitigate potential human rights risks:

• Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO): Our Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility (CR), who is also our CSO, is responsible for overseeing the AT&T Human Rights Policy. The CSO reports several times per year on CR issues to the Governance and Policy Committee of the AT&T Board of Directors. Discussion includes any CR topic, including human rights, that is relevant and timely to the business.
• CR Governance Council: Our CSO regularly convenes the CR Governance Council, comprised of senior executives and officers from across the company who are responsible for the business areas aligned with our most important CR issues, including human rights.
• Human Rights Committee: The AT&T Human Rights Committee is led by CR executives and meets several times per year. It includes subject-matter experts from our Global Public Policy; Legal; Human Resources; Privacy; Consumer; and Global Supply Chain organizations. The committee is responsible for monitoring emerging human rights issues, implementing the AT&T Human Rights Policy throughout our operations, and conducting related due diligence.

Human Rights Policy

Our Human Rights Policy is made available to all AT&T employees and suppliers and outlines our expectations for respecting and promoting human rights throughout our business. Here are some aspects of the policy:

• Policy Foundation: The Human Rights Policy is based on principles and guidelines from internationally recognized organizations, such as the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
• Availability & Awareness: We post our Human Rights Policy online and publicize it in a variety of ways, including in communications with policymakers. The policy is posted on the AT&T Supplier Portal and referenced in our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers, along with other policies and materials that explain our approach to supplier responsibility.
• Training: AT&T Supply Chain Sourcing Managers receive optional annual training that includes information on the AT&T Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. We continue to assess opportunities to train employees on human rights issues, such as the training we developed in 2020 to help frontline employees better detect and report child sexual abuse material on customers’ devices.

AT&T recognizes that human rights issues are multifaceted. Our approach works to identify and address the full range of human rights, with a specific emphasis on the following salient human rights issues:

Privacy

Protecting our users’ data is fundamental to the way we do business. We implement data protection and offer consumers choices with respect to their personal information. For more details about our approach to privacy, please visit our Privacy issue brief.

Non-Discrimination

As stated in our Human Rights Policy, we recognize that the world we serve is varied in its social customs and cultural traditions, and we respect and embrace those differences. Some of the ways we embed this commitment throughout our business include:

• Code of Conduct: Our Code of Business Conduct prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical disability, mental disability, pregnancy, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
• Supplier Commitment: We seek to work with suppliers that share our commitments to ethical and sustainable business practices, human rights (including labor rights) and inclusion.

Freedom of Expression and Access to Information

We believe that the freedom to access information and the freedom to communicate are essential to the advancement of human potential. At its most basic level, the infrastructure we build and operate enables our users to connect and communicate. Through our services and platforms, our users can hold and share opinions freely, seek out others’ ideas and communicate their own. Our approach to freedom of expression includes the following:

• Our Users: We respect and protect our users’ rights to hold and freely share opinions and access a full range of ideas and information. We believe restrictions on lawful freedom of expression using communications services and the internet will diminish their usefulness, dampen the exchange of ideas, and reduce innovation and commercial opportunities.
• Our Services: AT&T has not received a government order to shut down or restrict access to any communications networks or services. If we were to receive such a request, we would evaluate its legality and strive to minimize any impact on customers’ freedom of expression. Such incidents would be disclosed in our semiannual Transparency Report, consistent with the requirements of applicable licenses and local laws.
• International Customers: In countries outside the United States where AT&T provides telecommunications and internet access service, we may receive legal demands from governments to block access to certain websites in their countries or to provide customer information. We do not respond to requests to block websites or to access customer information coming from any foreign or domestic individuals, private entities or self-regulatory bodies unless we receive a valid legal demand. We report on these demands in our Transparency Report.

For further details about our freedom of expression efforts, read AT&T’s Commitment to Digital Rights.

Child Rights

Technology has become an integral part of children’s realities all around the world, providing opportunities to connect, learn, play and more. We recognize these opportunities are not without risks.

Technology and communications companies, policy makers and civil society must work to protect the privacy of young users’ personal data and preserve children’s rights to freedom of expression, freedom from online predators and freedom from exploitation. To safeguard children from harmful content, we provide online safety tools for parents and guardians and work with organizations dedicated to the protection of children online. Our approach includes:

• Policies & Systems: We continuously evolve our policies and systems to address children’s rights and keep pace with the ever-evolving threats to online safety. This focus includes an assessment of how we manage our facilities and assets and how we develop, market and deliver products and services.
• Online Safety: In 2020, we completed a child’s rights impact assessment across our portfolio of products and services to better understand risks related to potential online child exploitation and child sexual abuse material. The risk assessment leveraged the UNICEF Mobile Operator Child Rights Self-Impact Assessment Tool, as well as industry best practices. We updated this assessment in 2022 following the sale of DIRECTV (in 2021) and the divestiture of WarnerMedia (in 2022) to determine the issues most relevant to our remaining telecommunications and internet service business lines. Findings were reported to the AT&T Human Rights Committee, which has responsibility for resulting actions. 
• Education & Resources: AT&T ScreenReady^® provides digital literacy, digital parenting and online safety resources to help kids and families make safe and positive connections on all screens. In 2023, AT&T partnered with National PTA to deliver a new “Ready, Tech, Go!” workshop series in elementary schools. These free workshops are open to parents and caregivers and provide tools related to screen readiness and to promoting a healthy digital home. In addition, the AT&T Secure Family^® app helps users control their family’s phone use, find family members and block inappropriate content.
• Calling Home Program: In Mexico, we continued our Calling Home program, which aligns with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. This program supports migrants fleeing their home countries by providing free telephone calls to let loved ones know they are safe. We partner with the National Institute of Migration to support this effort, and to date, we have installed 32 telephones across 19 states within migrant centers. We are expanding this program by collaborating with other organizations, such as the Secretary of Labor (Secretaria del Trabajo y Prevision Social) in its Tijuana, Baja California, migrant shelter Centro Para el Migrante Carmen Serdan; and the National System for Integral Family Development (Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia) in the state of Tabasco. This program helped AT&T obtain the Social Responsibility Badge from the Mexican Center for Philanthropy and the Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility for the seventh consecutive year. 
  

Due Diligence

We conduct due diligence to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts related to our business operations and our business relationships. Our approach to human rights due diligence evolves with our business and includes:

• Guidance: We follow guidance from the U.N., including the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in conducting due diligence and risk assessments.
• Reviews: We conduct due diligence to examine human rights risks relating to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of information, labor, and the potential for unlawful discrimination. We conduct this due diligence when we:
  
  • Enter new markets or jurisdictions
  • Acquire new firms or lines of business
  • Develop new products or services
• Stakeholder Engagement: We engage a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, rightsholders or potentially impacted parties, and civil society, when identifying, assessing and mitigating potential human rights risks.

Human Rights in the Supply Chain

We hold our suppliers to the same standards to which we hold our own employees. We ensure our suppliers are informed of our expectations and remain in compliance through the following:

• Contractual Obligations: We have sustainability-focused contract clauses that highlight relevant policies, such as our codes of conduct and the AT&T Human Rights Policy, and legally bind suppliers to adhere to programs in a manner consistent with these policies.
• Principles of Conduct for Suppliers: Our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers articulate our expectations that the products we sell will not contain conflict minerals that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups. The principles also prohibit modern slavery, involuntary labor, child labor, prison labor, debt bondage or indentured or forced labor. Further, the principles establish expectations related to competitive pay, overtime and acceptable living conditions.
• Accountability: Through our membership with the Joint Alliance for CSR, we conduct periodic reviews, audits and assessments to evaluate suppliers on their sustainability efforts based on survey responses that include questions about their human rights practices.

For more information on human rights in our supply chain, please visit our Responsible Supply Chain issue brief.

Addressing & Remedying Grievances

AT&T is committed to investigating and addressing human rights-related concerns from stakeholders, including customers, employees and suppliers. This commitment is referenced in our Consumer Service Agreement for wireless and internet customers, our Privacy Notice and our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. Grievances are promptly managed by the relevant business unit.

Stakeholder Engagement

We are committed to working with governments, industry groups, customers and civil society to protect human rights around the world in areas associated with our operations. We believe these issues merit a society-wide conversation, so we regularly engage with stakeholders to explain our point of view, share best practices, learn from our peers and identify industry-specific issues. We engage with groups such as:

• United Nations Global Compact (UNGC): AT&T was the first U.S.-based telecommunications service provider to become a signatory of the UNGC and commit to its voluntary framework of principles related to human rights and environmental sustainability. 
• BSR Human Rights Working Group (HRWG): AT&T is a member of BSR’s HRWG, which was created to develop a safe space for a cross-sector group of companies to openly share best practices, challenges, questions and experiences around implementing the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
• Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT): AT&T regularly participates in CDT’s free-expression working group as well as several of CDT’s other formal and informal working groups addressing issues that affect human rights and freedom of expression on the internet.
• Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI): Since 2012, AT&T has participated in GeSI’s Human Rights Working Group to pursue a practical means of implementing the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights across the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, which includes internet providers, telecoms and manufacturers. The working group is also coordinating GeSI’s involvement in the European Commission’s project to develop human rights guidance for the ICT sector.
• Internet Governance Forum (IGF): AT&T participates in the multistakeholder process with the IGF that has historically governed the internet. During these meetings, we advocate against local data storage mandates and other impediments to the free flow of information.
• Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA): AT&T participates in GSMA’s Sustainability Network to address salient human rights issues for mobile operators throughout their value chains. The network discusses relevant issues and shares practical guidance for companies responding to human rights concerns.
• WeProtect Global Alliance: AT&T is a member of the WeProtect Global Alliance, an international movement dedicated to ending child sexual exploitation and abuse online to make the digital world safer for children.
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC): AT&T is committed to cooperating with local, state and federal law enforcement and child protection organizations, such as NCMEC, in their efforts to protect children online and to pursue child predators and those engaged with online child sexual abuse material.

We will continue to honor our commitments, obligations and dedication to upholding and advancing human rights throughout our value chain. We will continue to do so in accordance with applicable national and international laws, as well as internationally accepted codes and standards. And we will do so in keeping with our mission to connect people around the world to greater possibility.