The country’s recent National Baseline Assessment on Business and Human Rights report reveals an urgent need for human rights to be entrenched into Malaysia’s domestic laws.
There are growing calls for more corporate disclosure, but if firms release sustainability reports just to meet the needs of external stakeholders, including regulators, it is unlikely to motivate internal changes to business operations.
The number of ESG disclosures does not always determine quality. There should also be greater scrutiny of how companies pick topics "material" to them.