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Guiding Principle 18
In order to gauge human rights risks, business enterprises should identify and assess any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts with which they may be involved either through their own activities or as a result of their business relationships. This process should: (a) Draw on internal and/or independent external human rights expertise; (b) Involve meaningful consultation with potentially…
Guiding Principle 19
In order to prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts, business enterprises should integrate the findings from their impact assessments across relevant internal functions and processes, and take appropriate action. (a) Effective integration requires that: (i) Responsibility for addressing such impacts is assigned to the appropriate level and function within the business enterprise; (ii) Internal decision-making, budget allocations and…
Guiding Principle 20
In order to verify whether adverse human rights impacts are being addressed, business enterprises should track the effectiveness of their response. Tracking should: (a) Be based on appropriate qualitative and quantitative indicators; (b) Draw on feedback from both internal and external sources, including affected stakeholders. Commentary Tracking is necessary in order for a business enterprise to know…
Guiding Principle 21
In order to account for how they address their human rights impacts, business enterprises should be prepared to communicate this externally, particularly when concerns are raised by or on behalf of affected stakeholders. Business enterprises whose operations or operating contexts pose risks of severe human rights impacts should report formally on how they address them. In all instances, communications should: (a)…
Guiding Principle 22
Where business enterprises identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse impacts, they should provide for or cooperate in their remediation through legitimate processes. Commentary Even with the best policies and practices, a business enterprise may cause or contribute to an adverse human rights impact that it has not foreseen or been able to prevent. Where a…
Guiding Principle 23
In all contexts, business enterprises should: (a) Comply with all applicable laws and respect internationally recognized human rights, wherever they operate; (b) Seek ways to honour the principles of internationally recognized human rights when faced with conflicting requirements; (c) Treat the risk of causing or contributing to gross human rights abuses as a legal compliance issue wherever they…
Guiding Principle 24
Where it is necessary to prioritize actions to address actual and potential adverse human rights impacts, business enterprises should first seek to prevent and mitigate those that are most severe or where delayed response would make them irremediable. Commentary While business enterprises should address all their adverse human rights impacts, it may not always be possible to address them…
Guiding Principle 11
Business enterprises should respect human rights. This means that they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. Commentary The responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate. It exists independently of States’ abilities and/or…
Guiding Principle 10
States, when acting as members of multilateral institutions that deal with business-related issues, should: (a) Seek to ensure that those institutions neither restrain the ability of their member States to meet their duty to protect nor hinder business enterprises from respecting human rights; (b) Encourage those institutions, within their respective mandates and capacities, to promote business respect for human…
Guiding Principle 9
States should maintain adequate domestic policy space to meet their human rights obligations when pursuing business-related policy objectives with other States or business enterprises, for instance through investment treaties or contracts. Commentary Economic agreements concluded by States, either with other States or with business enterprises – such as bilateral investment treaties, freetrade agreements or contracts for investment projects – create…
Guiding Principle 8
States should ensure that governmental departments, agencies and other State-based institutions that shape business practices are aware of and observe the State’s human rights obligations when fulfilling their respective mandates, including by providing them with relevant information, training and support. Commentary There is no inevitable tension between States’ human rights obligations and the laws and policies they put in place…
Guiding Principle 7
Because the risk of gross human rights abuses is heightened in conflictaffected areas, States should help ensure that business enterprises operating in those contexts are not involved with such abuses, including by: (a) Engaging at the earliest stage possible with business enterprises to help them identify, prevent and mitigate the human rights-related risks of their activities and business relationships; (b)…
Guiding Principle 6
States should promote respect for human rights by business enterprises with which they conduct commercial transactions. Commentary States conduct a variety of commercial transactions with business enterprises, not least through their procurement activities. This provides States – individually and collectively – with unique opportunities to promote awareness of and respect for human rights by those enterprises, including through the…
Guiding Principle 5
States should exercise adequate oversight in order to meet their international human rights obligations when they contract with, or legislate for, business enterprises to provide services that may impact upon the enjoyment of human rights. Commentary States do not relinquish their international human rights law obligations when they privatize the delivery of services that may impact upon the enjoyment of…
Guiding Principle 4
States should take additional steps to protect against human rights abuses by business enterprises that are owned or controlled by the State, or that receive substantial support and services from State agencies such as export credit agencies and official investment insurance or guarantee agencies, including, where appropriate, by requiring human rights due diligence. Commentary States individually are the primary duty-bearers…
Guiding Principle 3
In meeting their duty to protect, States should: (a) Enforce laws that are aimed at, or have the effect of, requiring business enterprises to respect human rights, and periodically to assess the adequacy of such laws and address any gaps; (b) Ensure that other laws and policies governing the creation and ongoing operation of business enterprises, such as…
Guiding Principle 2
States should set out clearly the expectation that all business enterprises domiciled in their territory and/or jurisdiction respect human rights throughout their operations. Commentary At present States are not generally required under international human rights law to regulate the extraterritorial activities of businesses domiciled in their territory and/or jurisdiction. Nor are they generally prohibited from…
Guiding Principle 1
States must protect against human rights abuse within their territory and/or jurisdiction by third parties, including business enterprises. This requires taking appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuse through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication. Commentary States’ international human rights law obligations require that they respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of individuals within their…
Human rights defenders & Civic space
Human Rights defender (HRD) is a term used to describe “people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner”, as defined by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. A human rights defender can be, for example, an individual such as a journalist, worker, lawyer, activist,…
Children’s rights
In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) as well as the International Labour Organization (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and the ILO Minimum Age Convention (No. 138), “a child is a person below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained…