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What this is, effectively, for the Government, regulators and any companies who adopt it is another sticker to put on the letterhead.

It is the real-world equivalent of posting a picture of a poorly child from Africa on your facebook page and putting a comment "aww", so that you get "likes" and feel good about yourself.

The government can, for example, introduce a requirement that social housing tenants in receipt of benefits which by definition pay the basic minimum necessary to live, should pay a percentage of that back to the state for the "bedroom tax". They can bomb the hell out of Libya (and Syria if Putin would let them). They can rip people's fingernails off in order to get them to confess to being in Al Qaeda.

But none of that matters. Because they "respect Human Rights".

Meanwhile, the usual suspects of Unilever, Centrica, BP, et al can pollute to their hearts content in some poor village in India. Because they have a "Human Rights Charter" and a "commitment to uphold the best in internationally recognised standards".