26 III. OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES A. POLICY COMMITMENT GUIDING PRINCIPLE 16 As the basis for embedding their responsibility to respect human rights, business enterprises should express their commitment to meet this responsibility through a statement of policy that: (a) Is approved at the most senior level of the business enterprise; (b) Is informed by relevant internal and/or external expertise; (c) Stipulates the enterprise’s human rights expectations of personnel, business partners and other parties directly linked to its operations, products or services; (d) Is publicly available and communicated internally and externally to all personnel, business partners and other relevant parties; (e) Is reflected in operational policies and procedures necessary to embed it throughout the business enterprise. Q 21. Why does this matter? The term “policy commitment” is used here to mean a high-level and public statement by an enterprise to set out its commitment to meet its responsibility to respect human rights. It makes this commitment a clear, overarching policy that will determine its actions. The policy commitment is distinct from the operational policies and procedures referred to in subparagraph (e) of this Guiding Principle, which are typically not public, are more detailed in nature and help translate the high-level commitment into operational terms. A policy commitment to meet the enterprise’s responsibility to respect human rights: (a) Demonstrates both inside and outside the enterprise that management understands this is a minimum standard for conducting business with legitimacy;