Belgian supermarkets take insufficient responsibility for human rights

Belgian supermarkets do not take significant actions and initiatives to tackle human rights violations in the supply chain. Lidl is ahead of other Belgian supermarkets, for example by conducting an annual risk analysis followed by several assessments in those food supply chains with a high risk on human rights violations. Besides, Lidl is most transparent about its suppliers throughout the supply chains and ensures access for workers and small-scale farmers to its grievance mechanism. Overall, none of the supermarkets take sufficient responsibility for human rights in its supply chains, while from 2027 onwards, the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence will oblige supermarkets to detect, tackle and prevent human rights violations in their supply chains.

Lidl leads the way in the Superlist Social rankings, followed by Aldi in the middle. Although Delhaize, Carrefour and Colruyt have some valuable projects and promising precursors for future policies, lack of current policy and reporting result in them being the laggards in this ranking.