Every day, people across the globe demonstrate extraordinary commitment and courage to protect the rights of individuals, communities and workers – and to protect the planet from environmental harm. They bring critical insights, testimonies and documentation to prevent abuses where possible and to provide the basis for accountability when necessary.

As human rights defenders expose and oppose injustices perpetrated by powerful economic and political actors, they may take grave personal risks and are often targeted for retaliation. Defenders protecting human rights against violations connected to companies can face legal intimidation, electronic surveillance, violent attacks, and even killings.

The work of human rights defenders has been both an inspiration and a challenge for the business and human rights agenda since its inception in the wake of the execution of environmental and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni Nine by the Nigerian military regime in November 1995. However, tangible commitments and actions to safeguard defenders emerged only two decades later as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights fully established the responsibility of companies to respect human rights across their operations and business relationships and as regular NGO reports of attacks became available.

Over the past half-dozen years, there has been an increasing and encouraging awareness of the need for companies to adopt policies and processes that protect the rights of defenders and support the enabling environment of civic freedoms essential to their vital work. Recognition of this imperative has at last moved defenders from the background to the foreground of the business and human rights agenda.

Local and global civil society organisations have developed tracking tools and indicators that heighten the visibility of – and in turn enable accountability for – corporate links to attacks on defenders. There are now many company-specific policies committing to support defenders, including some pledging zero tolerance for attacks, along with two major models of industry-wide implementation guidance. Although there are few publicly disclosed examples of company support for individual defenders, there are many examples of individual and collective corporate plus multi-stakeholder initiative actions in support of civic freedoms. Legislation to mandate human rights due diligence in several countries and the European Union – albeit currently in danger of dilution – should also help companies establish more robust prevention systems, as well as avenues for accountability and remedy where attacks occur.

ISHR’s new report, supported by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, published today, summarises and assesses progress over the past decade, with a focus on the wide range of international frameworks, guidance, initiatives and tools that are now established. This report provides examples of the types of actions that companies are taking to support defenders and civic freedoms. It outlines the initiatives and the frameworks that companies can adapt as they seek to ensure respect for defenders, and it offers recommendations to states, business and civil society to drive this agenda forward at a challenging time for this agenda – and indeed for human rights and civic freedoms – around the world.

Threats and attacks against defenders continue, with the number of reported attacks against human rights defenders who raise concerns about abusive business remaining broadly consistent year on year. Moreover, protections for freedom of expression, association, assembly and public participation are steadily being eroded globally: Freedom House has pointed to a 19-year global decline in civic freedoms. When civic freedoms are under threat, the work of human rights defenders becomes both more vital and more dangerous. As several major established democracies show increasingly authoritarian tendencies, there is an “uphill battle” to defend these rights at a time when the situation for defenders around the world is increasingly fragile.

The current US administration’s attacks on press freedom, defiance of the judiciary and intimidation of universities, major law firms and dissenters has already weakened the rule of law and civic space in the USA in ways that may embolden other governments to curtail civic freedoms. Companies in the US and abroad have been threatened with retaliation over diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Funding of civil society and human rights organisations in the USA and abroad is being eviscerated by the termination of USAID and NED grants as well as limitations. Moreover, the defenestration of the State Department’s longstanding democracy and human rights diplomacy programmes and reporting will undermine civic space and defenders around the world. Facing unprecedented cuts of support to civil society partners and international development around the world, defenders have come under increased pressure with fewer organisational resources and protections.

The recent progress achieved in raising awareness and gaining commitments by business to protect defenders must be shielded against these threats to civic freedoms. Companies must translate policy commitments into concrete actions – and cut through the implementation challenges and dilemmas that are constructively and operationally addressed by this report. Now with the frameworks, guidance, tools and initiatives established, implementation and action are imperative.

Business can and must become allies and not adversaries of defenders. Actions companies take to support this agenda contribute, in the long term, to their own social licence to operate. Where defenders can operate freely and safely, companies have the best chance of encountering stable, predictable operating environments. Companies and defenders can seek common ground – common interests if not always common values – in supporting the shared space of civic freedoms, the rule of law and accountable institutions. This challenge is more important and urgent than ever in a polarised world.

Authors: Bennett Freeman and Ragnhild Handagard. Commissioned by International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), advised by Eleanor Openshaw and Ulises Quero (ISHR), and supported by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), in particular Ana Žbona, Christen Dobson and Michael Clements.

Bennett Freeman is lead author of Shared Space Under Pressure: Business Support for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders, former Calvert Investments Senior VP for Sustainability Research and Policy, and former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Ragnhild Handagard has worked with Bennett Freeman Associates, LLC, on the corporate responsibility to respect the rights of human rights defenders. She co-authored the VPI Guidance on Respecting the Rights of Human Rights Defenders (2023) and consulted on the Unilever Principles in Support of Human Rights Defenders and implementation guidance for existing commitments and requirements (2023). She also contributed to the ISHR Indicators on how to track businesses’ respect of the rights of human rights defenders (2024).