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Article

5 Nov 2009

Author:
John Ruggie, UN Special Representative for Business & Human Rights

[PDF] "Just business: Why companies must pay attention to human rights" - Keynote Address, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (Toronto, 5 Nov 2009)

I’ve been asked to provide an update on my mandate…Let me turn to two components of the [Protect, Respect and Remedy] framework that relate directly to corporations: first, human rights due diligence, and second, grievance mechanisms. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights is a universally acknowledged norm. Yet how do companies know they respect human rights? What is required...is human rights due diligence...Secondly, I want to stress the role played by site-level grievance mechanisms to which affected individuals and communities can bring corporate-related concerns…If I had to summarize these developments in a single phrase, I would say this: the era of declaratory CSR is over; we’ve moved into “prove it” time. [refers to Cerrejon Coal, Esquel Group, Hewlett Packard, Sakhalin Energy, Tesco]