What is new about the Guiding Principles…is that they elaborate a definition of what it means for a company to respect human rights…that a business is responsible for its impacts…and that it should take steps – due diligence – to ensure its activities and relationships do not have adverse impacts on people’s rights…[A] group of three civil society coalitions – the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) – commissioned four experts (Professor Olivier de Schutter, Professor Anita Ramasastry, Robert Thompson, and me, Mark Taylor) to…establish the extent to which the legal systems of States already make use of due diligence regulations to ensure that businesses respect established standards…We heard earlier today that the problem with ensuring that business acts responsibly is that “everything is voluntary”. Based on my participation in the Expert Group I am convinced that era is coming to a close…