Tracking progress in business and human rights: An introduction
At Measuring Business & Human Rights (MB&HR), we are excited that discussions on how to assess and track implementation of the UNGPs have taken centre stage in the business and human rights agenda. As we have repeatedly argued, “translating” international standards into indicators and metrics can be a powerful tool to enhance business compliance, but also a dangerous mechanism to hide political decisions behind technical language and obscure procedures (thus disempowering vulnerable communities and affected individuals)...This is why, four weeks in advance of the the UN Annual Forum, we are glad to launch a “series” of blogposts whose objective is to trigger innovative thinking on how “measuring business and human rights” should be performed...
In particular, we have asked contributors (representing different stakeholders, from companies to governments, from civil society organizations to measurement experts) to address the following questions:
- How can we measure progress in the implementation of the UNGPs? What are the most daunting challenges and/or the most promising solutions?
- Do you see progress in the implementation of the UNGPs? If so (or if not), what is the evidence in support of your argument?