The Investor Case for Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence
The undersigned 101 investors, representing over US$4.2 trillion in assets under management, believe that all business actors have a responsibility to respect human rights and that the process of continuously conducting human rights due diligence is a core requirement for companies in fulfilling that responsibility. We also believe that governments have a duty to protect against human rights abuse by business through effective regulatory measures, particularly where voluntary corporate measures continue to leave significant gaps in human rights protections.
We therefore call on all governments to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory human rights due diligence requirements for companies headquartered or operating within their own jurisdictions or, where appropriate, to further strengthen these regulatory regimes where they already exist...
As members of the investment community, we urge governments to require companies to undertake robust human rights due diligence processes as this type of regulation is:
1. Materially good for business, investors, and the economy;
2. Essential in creating uniformity and efficiency as an increasing number of governments are already taking this step; and
3. A necessary component for investors to fulfill our own responsibility to respect human rights...