Human Rights

Driving transparency, regulatory compliance and responsible business practices to respect and protect fundamental human rights.

Why It Matters: The Global Context

All people, regardless of status or circumstance, deserve the dignity and freedom of human rights protections. While much progress has been made, work is required to ensure responsible, ethical and fair practices are upheld against a constantly changing global landscape. Not only does failing to respect and protect human rights represent a societal risk in terms of social unrest, health impacts and community instability; it can bring about reputational and legal repercussions for businesses.

Our Approach

To successfully deliver on our company purpose, we must do our part to help ensure basic human rights are upheld in our operations. We respect and honor human rights and comply with all relevant laws and regulations.

Our efforts are guided by our company-wide Human Rights Policy, which is based on internationally recognized principles and guidelines. We socialize the policy widely, including through communications with policymakers, via the AT&T Supplier Portal and in other supplier-facing materials.

Three other globally applicable policies reinforce our human rights stance:

Understanding Our Issues

Following guidance such as the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP), we examine human rights risks relating to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of information, labor and the potential for unlawful discrimination whenever we enter new markets or jurisdictions, acquire new firms or business lines, or develop new products or services. To ensure broad perspectives are considered, we engage a range of stakeholders — including employees, suppliers, rights-holders or potentially impacted parties, and civil society — when identifying, assessing and mitigating our most salient human rights risks.

Issue	Approach
Privacy	Protecting users’ data is fundamental to how we operate. We implement data protection and offer consumers choices with respect to their personal information. For more information on our approach to privacy, see our Privacy issue brief.
Non-Discrimination	Our Code of Business Conduct prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical disability, mental disability, pregnancy, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
Freedom of Expression and Access to Information	Our approach to freedom of expression and access to information includes: Our Users: We respect and protect users’ rights to hold, and freely share, opinions and access a full range of ideas and information. We believe restrictions on lawful freedom of expression using communications services and the internet will diminish their usefulness, impede idea exchange and reduce innovation and commercial opportunities. Our Services: If we were to receive a government order to shut down or restrict access to any communications networks or services, we would evaluate its legality and strive to minimize any impact on customers’ freedom of expression. International Customers: In countries outside the U.S. where AT&T provides telecommunications and internet services, we may receive legal demands from governments to block access to certain websites or to provide customer information. We do not respond to such requests from any foreign or domestic individuals, private entities or self-regulatory bodies unless we receive a valid legal demand. For more information on our freedom of expression efforts, view AT&T’s Commitment to Digital Rights. For information on legal demands we have responded to, view our semiannual Transparency Report.
Child Rights	To safeguard children from harmful content, we provide online safety tools for parents and guardians and work with organizations dedicated to the protection of children online. Our approach includes: Policies and Systems: We continuously evolve our policies and systems to keep pace with the ever-evolving threats to online safety and children’s rights. This includes an assessment of how we manage our facilities and assets and how we develop, market and deliver products and services. Online Safety: We are aware of the complex risks related to potential online child exploitation and child sexual abuse material. We remain involved in advocating for solutions and engaging with companies to drive progress. This includes maintaining membership with the WeProtect Global Alliance and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to understand how technology can be used to ensure children’s online safety. Education and Resources: Through AT&T ScreenReady®, we provide digital literacy, digital parenting and online safety resources to help kids and families make safe and positive connections on all screens. Learn more in our Digital Divide issue brief. Calling Home Program: In Mexico, we continued our Calling Home program, which aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and provides free telephone calls to migrants leaving their home countries to let loved ones know they are safe. Learn more in the AT&T Mexico Sustainability Report.

Human Rights in the Supply Chain

When it comes to human rights, we hold our suppliers to the same standards we hold ourselves. Our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers establishes expectations related to competitive pay, overtime and acceptable living conditions, and prohibits:

The use of conflict minerals
Modern slavery
Involuntary labor
Child labor
Prison labor
Debt bondage
Indentured or forced labor

We maintain contract clauses that legally bind suppliers to adhere to programs in a manner consistent with AT&T policies such as our codes of conduct and Human Rights Policy.

Through our membership with the Joint Alliance for CSR (JAC), we conduct periodic reviews, audits and assessments to evaluate suppliers on human rights issues. We work with suppliers to address the corrective actions that arise as a result.

For more information on how we uphold our supply chain standards, please visit our Responsible Supply Chain issue brief, as well as our Modern Slavery Statements.

Human Rights Training

AT&T Supply Chain Sourcing Managers receive annual training that includes information on the AT&T Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. We also deliver training to help frontline employees better detect and report child sexual abuse material on customers’ devices. We continue to assess further opportunities for employee human rights training.

Human Rights Governance

Cross-company executives are responsible for governing and implementing our Human Rights Policy. Various executives also collaborate to identify and mitigate potential human rights risks, including:

Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility: Oversees the AT&T Human Rights Policy. The CSO reports on any relevant and timely corporate responsibility issues — including human rights — to the Board of Directors’ Governance and Policy Committee periodically and as needed throughout the year.
Corporate Responsibility Governance Council: Led by our CSO and comprising senior executives and officers responsible for business areas most closely linked to our current corporate responsibility priorities, including human rights.
Human Rights Committee: Led by Corporate Responsibility executives and comprising subject matter experts from our Global Public Policy, Legal, Human Resources, Privacy, Consumer and Global Supply Chain organizations. The committee is responsible for human rights due diligence and implementing the AT&T Human Rights Policy.

Stakeholder Engagement

We work with various groups to protect human rights wherever we operate, explain our points of view, share best practices, learn from our peers and identify industry-specific issues.

BSR Human Rights Working Group (HRWG): AT&T is a member of BSR’s HRWG to share best practices, challenges, questions and experiences around implementing the UNGP.
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT): AT&T participates in various CDT working groups addressing issues that affect human rights and freedom of expression on the internet.
Global enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI): AT&T participates in GeSI’s Human Rights Working Group to pursue a practical means of implementing the UNGP across the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The working group is also coordinating GeSI’s involvement in the European Commission’s project to develop human rights guidance for the ICT sector.
Internet Governance Forum (IGF): AT&T participates in the IGF’s multi-stakeholder process that has historically governed the internet to advocate against local data storage mandates and other impediments to the free flow of information.
Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA): AT&T participates in GSMA’s Sustainability Network to address salient human rights issues for mobile operators.
JAC: AT&T sits on JAC’s Board of Directors to ensure decisive action and progress.

Addressing and Remedying Grievances

We investigate and address human rights-related concerns from stakeholders, including customers, employees and suppliers. This commitment is referenced in our Consumer Service Agreement, our Privacy Notice and our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. Grievances are promptly managed by the relevant business unit.

AT&T’s Hotline web reporting tool is available to employees in the U.S. and provides a confidential and anonymous online process to report suspected or actual violations of AT&T's Code of Business Conduct, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies and other company policies. Employees outside the U.S. can report grievances through AT&T’s Asset Protection web reporting tool.

Last Updated: 4/9/2025