GRI describes its protocol on human rights as follows:
"Human Rights Performance Indicators elicit disclosures on the impacts and activities an organization has on the civil and political human rights of its stakeholders. The Aspects within these Performance Indicators are based on internationally recognized standards, primarily the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration on the Fundamental Principle and Rights at Work of 1998 (in particular the eight Core Conventions of the ILO)."

Conducted jointly by the Global Reporting Initiative and the Roberts Environmental Center in 2008, this study presents an analysis of human rights reporting based on information provided by a hundred companies worldwide. It helps evaluate the extent to which organizations are dealing with human rights, the structure of human rights reporting and information addressed by companies.