Mapping of the Current EU Sustainability Legislation on Human Rights Due Diligence and Comparison of the Requirements with the Services of the Food Security Standard (FSS)

The FSS enables an analysis of the most relevant protected legal positions for the agricultural sector under the LkSG, the CSDDD, the EUDR, the Conflict Minerals Regulation and the FLR. In the context of the CSRD, the (comprehensive or risk-based) implementation of the FSS in the supply chain also contributes to the presentation of qualitative, supply chain-related characteristics under the ESRS standards E2, E3, S2 and S3.

Details

While the due diligence and reporting obligations must be implemented and fulfilled by the companies that fall within the scope of the respective legal acts, human and environmental rights must be guaranteed not only within the obligated company, but also in the global supply chain. The protection of certain legal positions is therefore the objective of the various sustainability legal acts and has an impact on the entire supply chain.

The various national and European legislative bodies have recognized the importance of standards and certificates, particularly with regard to the LkSG, the CSDDD, the EUDR and the CSRD.  A certificate that verifies compliance with certain protected legal positions as part of an audit by an independent auditor at the supplier’s premises offers a relatively high guarantee that an identified risk does not actually exist. The resources of the risk analysis can thus be focused on suppliers with a higher risk profile, which is in line with the principle of prioritization that is common to all of the aforementioned regulations.
At the same time, it is clear that commissioning external third parties to carry out certifications does not release a company from its very own responsibility to protect human rights in the supply chain. Although certificates can be used as a measure for fulfilling due diligence obligations, they do not release a company from liability if it subsequently becomes apparent that the conditions for issuing the certificate are not (or no longer) met.

Against the background of the entry into force of various sustainability legal acts and taking into account the international frameworks on human rights and environmental protection in supply chains, we have carried out an assessment of the Food Security Standard (FSS) and its accompanying programs from a legal perspective. The content of the human rights-related standard was compared with the protected legal positions and the due diligence obligations from the various legal acts in order to determine which legal requirements companies meet when using the FSS or applying the accompanying programs. The following is a summary of these results. The information reflects the status as of January 2025 and is subject to future changes to the legal acts or interpretative guidance from the EU Commission or national authorities.