"Updated: Effectiveness of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence", 27 Mar 2024

...This is an updated version of the Policy Brief first published in May 2022, assessing the evidence base on the effectiveness of mandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (mHREDD) legislation.

That is, regulatory instruments... that require businesses to undertake due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for actual or potential human rights and environmental adverse impacts related to businesses’ own operations and their value chains...

This Policy Brief is based on an evidence review of mHREDD legislation developed and in force, which considered English-language publicly available academic literature and reports produced by NGOs, governments, and international organisations. Since the first publication of this brief, all the above mentioned national mHREDD laws have entered into force, the number of complaints and judgements against businesses in relation to these has increased, and numerous organisations have provided legal analyses on the positions of the European Council and Parliament during the trialogue discussions on the CSDDD. However, the general quality of the evidence is relatively low due to a lack of empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of mHREDD laws. The evidence presented here is mostly based on legal analyses, conceptual or theoretical academic papers, and stand-alone reports produced by CSOs and industry actors.

Key findings

1. MHREDD laws are increasingly being developed and implemented in Europe but they are not homogenous...

2. MHREDD laws may play a role in increasing awareness of HREDD, improving corporate disclosure of human rights risks, encouraging businesses to implement HRDD processes, including increasing human rights risk management, and increasing corporate human rights practices, especially of those falling behind in the voluntary adoption of human rights due diligence...

3. Policymakers should consider several factors that may influence the effectiveness of mHREDD legislation..

4. MHREDD laws can complement other legislative efforts to address human rights abuses including supply chain transparency legislation, public procurement laws, and forced labour import bans. However, there is little English-language evidence on how this might operate in practice, as most of the analysed legislation only recently came into force.

5. The risk of divestment and divergence are some wider potential consequences of mHREDD legislation to consider that may influence their effectiveness in addressing actual prevalence and incidence of modern slavery...