Our Commitment

We set out this commitment in greater detail in our human rights policy statement. In doing so, we follow laws such as the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), as well as international human rights and environmental reference instruments, including the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations," the "Core Labor Standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO)," the "OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises," and many more. 

Our human rights policy statement​

Our human rights and environmental principles form the foundation of our business activities. They apply equally to our employees, suppliers, and business partners and are defined in our Human Rights Code (PDF, 203 KB) (=Part 1 of our human rights policy statement).​
They describe our values, standards, and fundamental due diligence processes, which are further specified through additional Group-wide policies, instructions, and processes, thereby providing the framework for our actions. We continuously refine them and report on them annually.​

All Group companies over which Deutsche Telekom exercises controlling influence adopt and implement this Human Rights Code. More than one hundred Group companies worldwide operate in line with these human rights and environmental principles.​

Each year, we also publish the human rights and environmental risks we identify for the respective preceding year, including the measures and expectations derived from them, in our LkSG Annual Report (=Part 2 of the Human Rights Policy Statement).

What are human rights?​

Human rights affect us all: They apply to everyone - at all times and everywhere - without distinction of any kind, such as race, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2).

Examples of human rights include

• Prohibition of discrimination (e.g., on the basis of age, gender, religion, etc.),​
• Prohibition of child labor,​
• The right to freedom from torture and forced labor,​
• The right to freedom of speech,​
• The right to an adequate living wage,​
• The right to work and to health protection,​
• The right to a healthy environment. 

To better honor our commitment to respecting human rights, we have identified groups of people our business activities may potentially affect negatively or positively.

Groups of people 

Groups of people who may be positively or negatively affected by our business activities include, in particular, employees of our Group companies and our direct and indirect suppliers, people in our customer base, and people in communities. ​

Particularly vulnerable groups, such as:  children, young people, women, migrant workers, and other people who belong to national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities, receive our particular attention. Because an organization's human rights priorities may change as it develops, we review them at least once a year and adjust them where appropriate.​

All business activities needed to produce our products and services and make them available for customers to use can be divided into different phases. These phases are shown in our global value chain. This simplified representation shows the phase in which we directly or indirectly contribute to potential risks and enables us to prioritize preventive measures. In each of these phases, the groups of people mentioned above may be positively or negatively affected by our direct and indirect business activities. ​

Value chain​

Our global value chain begins in phase one with the extraction of raw materials, followed by phase two, further-processing “production .” Within our Group companies, additional manufacturing steps take place in phase three before the products and/or services are provided to our customer base. These three phases also describe the so-called supply chain within the meaning of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. Phases four and five, the recovery of products through measures such as recycling, complete the global value chain.

Through our risk management mechanisms, we work to proactively prevent risks and violations. If a violation does occur, or if one is suspected, our TellMe reporting system provides dedicated reporting channels that are open to affected groups as well as to people who are not affected.