Publication
Resources for businesses
- Published on: 11 May 2023
- Last updated on: 11 May 2023
- International Organisation guidance
- Practical business-facing guidance (including toolkits)
- Benchmarks for businesses
International Organisation guidance
- The website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provides an overview of Business and Human Rights and a comprehensive range of resources including an Interpretive Guide to the Corporate Responsibility to Protect Human Rights which explains key concepts and operational principles for the UNGPs; a handbook for business with real life case studies; Principles for Responsible Contracts: Guidelines for Negotiators; FAQs on the Guiding Principles and much more.
- The Council of Europe provides a non-exhaustive selection of some of the relevant standards and guidance issued by European and International organisations.
Practical business-facing guidance (including toolkits)
- Human Rights Reporting: The UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework helps business enterprises to understand what good disclosure on human rights looks like, and therefore what content businesses should include when reporting on human rights. As the Reporting Framework maps well to the expectations of the UN Guiding Principles themselves, it is also a useful tool for conducting a gap assessment against the UNGPs
- The “Doing business with respect for human rights” guidance (developed by Shift) provides practical, plain-language advice, experiences and insights for businesses to help them get started with identifying and managing their human rights risks
- The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) developed practical guidance for CEOs on how to manage their company human rights risks
- The Danish Institute of Human Rights has published a database of concrete actions by companies to place human rights due diligence at their heart of their business. It has developed a number of tools including a human rights impact assessment guidance and toolbox, a guide on integrating human rights into environmental, social and health impact assessments; a human rights and business country guide; and much more
- The British Equality and Human Rights Commission has developed a five step guide for company boards setting out the steps boards should take to ensure their business enterprises are complying with their human rights responsibilities. A similar seven step guide for managers is also available
- The Ethical Trading Initiative is an alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs that promotes respect for workers’ rights around the globe. The ETI Base Code is founded on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and is an internationally recognised code of labour practice while the ETI’s Base Code Guidance: Modern Slavery guide for business is available
- Stronger Together is a British multi-stakeholder business-led initiative aimed at reducing modern slavery. It has developed a number of resources which are available
- The Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) has developed the GBI Business Practice Portal. The Portal is an online ‘by business, for business’ resource that provides access to examples of GBI members’ human rights-related practices, plain-language summaries of relevant concepts from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and short videos of business practitioners describing how they approach different aspects of this work
- A number of CEOs of leading companies have also partnered with Shift and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to produce a CEO Guide to Human Rights
- The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the institutional representative of more than 45 million companies in over 100 countries. ICC resources on Responsible Business can be found here, while material on corporate responsibility is set out here. Resources developed by the ICC for companies include The ICC Guide to Responsible Sourcing and guide to third party due diligence for SMEs
- The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is an organisation dedicated to advancing human rights in business and eradicating abuse. The Centre tracks the human rights policy and performance of over 9,000 business enterprises in over 180 countries, making information publicly available. The organisation seeks to amplify the voices of the vulnerable and human rights advocates in civil society, media, business enterprises, and governments
Benchmarks for businesses
- The Danish Institute for Human Rights has developed a platform for human rights indicators for business that includes assessment questions as well as cases studies on the application of the human rights compliance assessment indicators in various contexts by various stakeholders
- Businesses may be familiar with the high profile Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) which assesses information publicly disclosed by business enterprises to measure how business enterprises ’ policies, processes, practices and response to serious allegations corresponds to the UNGPs. In Ireland, the Trinity Centre for Social Innovation uses aspects of the CHRB methodology to consider the performance of large firms operating in Ireland - see Irish Business and Human Rights: A snapshot of large firms operating in Ireland
- The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is an organisation dedicated to advancing human rights in business and eradicating abuse. The Centre tracks the human rights policy and performance of over 9000 business enterprises in over 180 countries, making information publicly available. The organisation seeks to amplify the voices of the vulnerable, and human rights advocates in civil society, media, business enterprises, and governments