The American Bar Association (ABA) has unanimously endorsed, and urges business enterprises to implement, the analytical and operational framework set forth in “Shared Space Under Pressure: Business Support for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders: Guidance for Companies,” published jointly by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the International Service for Human Rights, with Bennett Freeman as the lead author.

"Shared Space Under Pressure" includes an analytical and operational framework to guide company decisions on whether and if so how to act in support of human rights defenders and civic freedoms. The report sets forth a “normative responsibility” for companies to act in certain circumstances—consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights— where companies may have caused, contributed to or been linked directly to harms related to human rights and defenders. It also proposes a “discretionary opportunity” for companies to act when such circumstances are not apparent, but where a business case and/or a moral choice may nonetheless compel action. The report also urges that company decision-makers take into account the risks of inaction as well as action.

The American Bar Association’s endorsement will enable ABA entities to encourage implementation of the Shared Space guidance by the private sector & thereby leverage influence of the legal profession throughout the work of business to protect civic freedoms and HRDs.