Background

The unanimous endorsement of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011 represented a watershed moment in efforts to tackle adverse impacts on people resulting from globalization and business activity in all sectors. They provided, for the first time, a globally recognized and authoritative framework for the respective duties and responsibilities of Governments and business enterprises to prevent and address such impacts.

The Guiding Principles clarify that all business enterprises have an independent responsibility to respect human rights, and that in order to do so they are required to exercise human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address impacts on human rights.

Working Group report on human rights due diligence

In its report to the 2018 UN General Assembly, the Working Group on Business and Human Rights  highlights key features of human rights due diligence and why it matters; gaps and challenges in current business and Government practice; emerging good practices; and how key stakeholders — States and the investment community, in particular — can contribute to the scaling-up of effective human rights due diligence.

Human rights due diligence in practice is a major focus of the 2018 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Download the Working Group report on human rights due diligence to the 2018 General Assembly here.
Download the key documents to the report here.

Reproduced from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.