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Article

21 Jul 2020

Author:
Shift

Black Lives Matter: Putting Human Rights at the Heart of Corporate Responses

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ALL BUSINESSES HAVE a responsibility under the UN GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS to take action to respect human rights in connection with their own operations and their extended value chain. This responsibility is a globally acknowledged and expected standard of conduct that is increasingly reflected in national laws, the expectations of investors, NGO and trade union advocacy, the standards set by influential industry bodies and the commitments of companies themselves. In the US, the Department of State actively promotes the UN Guiding Principles to US companies. 

We see three main ways in which companies need to grapple with these human rights harms – both the immediate risks to protestors as well as the underlying inequalities that the BLM movement is raising.

These are: 

  1. Connections to short-term risks to protestors’ safety and freedom of speech
  2. Connections between a company’s own operations and racial discrimination over the long-term
  3. Company involvement in broader advocacy on BLM policy goals