II. Methodology 10 BSR’s Human Rights Assessment (HRA) methodology is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and includes consideration of the human rights principles, standards, and methodologies upon which the UNGPs were built. Individual company HRAs are conducted to identify and assess impacts to human rights and determine appropriate action to address those impacts. They are often undertaken to inform strategy and to position companies to fulfill their responsibility to respect human rights. In accordance with the UNGPs, credible human rights assessments: • Assess impacts to people, not impacts on business; • Assess impacts against all internationally recognized human rights; • Draw upon internal or independent external human rights expertise; and 11 • Highlight the concerns of affected stakeholders. Within these parameters, there is flexibility to determine how to conduct the assessment. This allows for adaptation to different industries, issues, and geographies while prioritizing the risks 12 to people, rather than the risks to the business. 13 This assessment builds upon existing HRA methodology to consider the human rights impacts of a sector as a whole. Sector-Wide Human Rights Assessment A sector-wide HRA differs from an individual company HRA in a few important ways. First, it assesses human rights impacts not only on an individual company or product level, but also considers impacts that may arise from the cumulative actions of several companies. Second, it allows for an assessment of the sector on a macro level, focusing on broader facets 8 Human Rights Assessment of the Software-as-a-Service Sector