Protecting human rights and implementing the UNGPs
The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights brings together representatives from business, government and civil society to explore the ongoing implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). BRODIE’s Georgie Erangey has been a valued participant in the UN Forum since 2014.
Every year the forum focusses on a theme and this year, the three-day event looked at what states can do to better protect human rights and implement the UNGPs (Pillar 1). Those of you who have read the Pillars to Pyramids article will know that the issues relating to business and human rights cannot be siloed into pillars. It is a dynamic system - where states, business and civil society must work collaboratively to generate systemic change. With that as the backdrop, these are a few reflections and projections following the 2019 Forum.
Whilst the focus of the forum was on what states should be doing to support the adoption of the UNGPs, businesses were still well represented across the panels. A continuous theme was the importance of developing a ‘smart-mix’ of the types of voluntary and mandatory measures to support the adoption of the principles. Participants explored what a ‘smart mix’ means within business and human rights regulation in domestic law to provide helpful suggestions for investment policy reform.
Discussions on EU mandatory human rights due diligence laws were encouraged by the leading work of the Australian Modern Slavery Act that captures public procurement and there were loud requests for governments to show real leadership in public procurement policy. The viewing of new documentaries on the role of Silicon Valley in the exploitation of domestic workers in Kuwait emphasised the urgency for more action in tackling the global modern slavery crisis. New facts show that every day, 10,000 people would need to be taken out of modern slavery in order to meet the SDGs.
Interestingly, for the first time ever the Forum provided a major panel discussion focused on the crossover between human rights and climate change. It was posed that climate change is the single largest human rights risk of the century.
As the 2019 Forum was the ninth, here are the nine key headlines:
The business and human rights space is becoming increasingly litigate-able and legal-ised. More information is making its way into the public domain as a result of disclosure laws.
Governments are increasingly legislating, but, often in inharmonious ways. Mandatory human rights due diligence is on the horizon.
Benchmarking is an important tool for business and has a catalytic impact for improvement.
Investors are placing greater emphasis on benchmarking which brings the challenge of measurement, assessment and comparability.
With a dynamic geopolitical environment, the clarity provided by the three pillars of protect, respect and remedy will be challenged. State instability and international disputes may force corporations to adopt the duty to protect.
Remedy is likely to have a stronger and sharper focus, as well as the role of technology (not as a sector, but as a function on business).
Only a very small group of companies are showing leadership on addressing human rights. The remaining 97% (!) of companies need to act
Many cross-cutting issues, such as climate change, that touch the business and human rights discourse are traditionally thought of as sustainability. The more they can be brought into the same conversation, the better chance there is to fix things.
Despite the urgent situation, many stakeholders are saturating themselves with policy and bureaucracy. More action is needed now.
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