Human Rights Literacy and Real-World Data Pose Challenges for Corporate ESG Due Diligence
JAKARTA — Low awareness of human rights and limited access to up-to-date data on workers’ conditions are major challenges for companies carrying out human rights due diligence and preparing accountable environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports.
Wika Harisa Putri, a sustainability expert at state-owned PT Surveyor Indonesia, said many companies still did not understand which working practices could constitute human rights violations. This makes it difficult for them to identify risks and ensure workers are protected in accordance with regulations.
“First of all, it is really about literacy. People in companies are not sufficiently aware of the things that can be categorised as human rights violations,” Wika said at the ESG Now Leadership & Awards Republika 2026 panel discussion in Jakarta on Monday (19 October 2026).
According to Wika, the challenge is evident in the logistics industry, particularly in relation to the risk of concealed forced labour and drivers’ working hours. Companies often lack adequate records to monitor when workers start and finish their duties.
She gave the example of logistics drivers who may travel for as long as 12 hours to reach their destination. Without proper records of working hours and adequate rest arrangements, this can lead to fatigue.
“These drivers cannot, for example, stop after four hours; they will keep going until they reach their destination, which can take 12 hours. Yet we do not recognise 12 hours of non-stop work,” she said.
Wika explained that worker fatigue can increase occupational safety and health risks, including road accidents. Over the longer term, unhealthy working conditions may also cause occupational illnesses whose effects emerge only after workers have been doing the job for years.
She said similar problems were not confined to logistics. Other sectors that operate shifts also face difficulties providing current data on workers’ hours and working conditions.
Wika said the lack of data was a fundamental obstacle to human rights due diligence. Without accurate information, companies struggle to identify risks, assess the impact on workers and ensure that human rights protection policies are genuinely implemented.
“When we talk about accountability, our challenge is how to produce real data so that it can serve as a basis for accountable reporting, particularly ESG reports,” she said.
She stressed that companies must ensure the information in their ESG reports reflects conditions on the ground. Reports that set out policies and commitments without supporting evidence risk failing to portray the problems workers actually face.
“We should not make statements that do not actually match the real conditions,” Wika said.
In her view, improving human rights literacy and record-keeping systems is essential to addressing these challenges. With better understanding and accurate data, companies can identify the risk of human rights violations at an early stage and improve the accountability of their ESG reporting.