For over 15 years, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has been tracking the positive and negative social and environmental impacts of companies in over 180 countries, making this information publicly available for advocates to use in advancing human rights in business and eradicating abuse. In doing so, we aim to encourage the highest level of responsible, transparent business practice.

To further encourage this transparency, we ensure the data that we collect is open and accessible for all on our free, public website. To date we have recorded:

• Over 7,600 companies globally;
• More than 100,000 pieces of content, including news reports, rankings and company responses to allegations;
• Metadata like sectors, countries, companies involved and related human rights issues.

As with any data set, as it grows the problem then becomes how to best access this plethora of information and derive meaningful insights from it. That’s why, for the last few months, we have been developing an API (what’s an API?) for the Resource Centre website. This creates a new way for us to deliver our information to people, allowing analysis at scale and integration with other websites and applications.

Many of our regular users are looking for ways interrogate our data for use in their work, whether that is identifying impacts and risks, making policy arguments or advocating for better standards. We are looking to develop this API in a way that enhances their tactics and strategies to put human rights at the centre of business. We are excited about the new collaborations further opening our data can facilitate, for example with the Data for Good movement, and are keen to uncover more opportunities to combine our data with other sources for increased impact.

The first version of the API will enable you to interrogate the Resource Centre database and return information in the structured JSON format. We’ll be adding new objects and filters based on your feedback, so don’t be shy and do let us know what you’d like to see! To help us do this, we are introducing the API as a Private Beta, with registration opening today and access being provided over the coming weeks. Whether you want to get down into the nitty gritty, or just have an idea you’d like to discuss, submit your details below and we’ll be in touch.

This release is just one component of our nascent technology strategy, the emergent Tech Advisory Group being another. Over the coming months and years we will develop how we use technology to empower more advocates to challenge corporate abuse, influence more companies to address their impact, and raise human rights standards across the global business sector. We encourage you to join us on this journey, and can’t wait to see all the innovative ways you put our data to work!

Access to the Resource Centre API Beta release is now closed. Please check back for more details on future releases.