Background
Unanimously approved by the Human Rights Council in June 2011, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) are the authoritative global standard for preventing, mitigating and addressing business-related adverse human rights impacts. Pillar II of the UNGPs, “Corporate Responsibility to Respect”, provides a blueprint for businesses to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts, including in their supply chains.
The UNGPs have enjoyed widespread uptake and support from states as well as business enterprises. Although several companies have publicly stated their support for the UNGPs and have started taking steps to implement them, they often face multiple challenges in practice, not least because teams in charge of corporate social responsibility or philanthropic activities may be given the responsibility to discharge Pillar II responsibilities. Then there are challenges concerning multi-tier and multi-jurisdictional supply chains and concerns related to the first mover disadvantages.
Against this context, this session will consider a few concrete case studies to understand better how companies could turn the UNGPs from a policy document to an integral part of their business practice.
Onjectives:
This session aims to:
- Understand how the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under the UNGPs is being operationalised through actions on the part of governments, businesses and other actors such as investors, consumers, trade unions and civil society organisations;
- Consider how businesses could turn challenges into opportunities in conducting human rights due diligence throughout their business operations;
- Examine the role of multi-stakeholder coalitions to promote business respect for human rights; and
- Share good practices and progress made by the private sector in conducting effective human rights due diligence, including by using innovation and technological tools.
