Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) are a set of principles established in 2010 during the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Leaders’ Summit that offer guidance to companies on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.

Formulated by UN Women and the Global Compact, the WEPs are made up of international labour and human rights standards and based on the recognition that companies have an interest in and responsibility for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the organizational culture, through corporate policies and programmes related to leadership, equality, health, development, business, communities and transparency.

WEPs are a primary vehicle for corporate social responsibility in the gender equality dimensions of Agenda 2030 – Transforming our World, made up of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets.

By joining the WEPs community, the CEO signals commitment to this agenda at the highest levels of the company and working collaboratively in multi-sector networks to promote business practices that empower women. This includes equal pay for work of equal value, gender-sensitive supply chain practices and zero tolerance against sexual harassment in the workplace.

On that occasion, the Summit brought together around 1,500 business leaders from around the world, including Copel’s CEO, who signed a commitment to develop strategies and implement them in practices adopted for operations, with repercussions throughout the supply chain, in favor of defending human rights and promoting diversity, equality, inclusion and justice.

The Women’s Empowerment Principles are:

Principle 1 – High-Level Corporate Leadership;

Principle 2 – Treat all women and men fairly at work, without discrimination;

Principle 3 – Employee health, well-being and safety;

Principle 4 – Education and training for career advancement;

Principle 5 – Enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices;

Principle 6 – Community initiatives and advocacy;

Principle 7 – Measurement and reporting.

To learn more, visit the WEPs page.