SUSTAINBILITY AND GENDER

REDEFINING THE CHAIN OF ACTIVITIES

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the EU Due Diligence Directive 2024/1760 on promoting gender equality and human rights throughout the “supply chain”, a concept that extends corporate responsibility beyond the traditional supply chain to encompass all stages of production, distribution and marketing. It imposes on companies the obligation to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy adverse impacts and to comply with obligations regarding human, labour and social rights, environmental protection and combating climate change, throughout their supply chain, including upstream business partners, as well as partially downstream activities in the production of goods or provision of services. It examines how the application of due diligence throughout the supply chain can become a key instrument to defend and promote gender equality, especially in sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture, where women often face greater exploitation. Additionally, the regulatory and cultural challenges that must be addressed for the integration of this approach in global markets are analyzed, along with the opportunities that the regulations offer to companies to redefine their governance towards sustainability, generating value in transparency and social responsibility, therefore, the Directive is addressed by establishing itself as a milestone in regulation, which redefines transnational trade towards a fairer and more inclusive model.