UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Latest additions:
- Events: "Business and Human Rights Workshop - Putting the Ruggie-Framework and the Guiding Principles into Practice", CSR Europe Berlin, 15 Apr; "Empresas e Direitos Humanos: como colocar os princípios da ONU em prática?", Conectas - São Paolo, 26 de março
- Company implementation: ”Respecting Human Rights Through Global Supply Chain”, Shift, report of workshop
- Uses by NGOs: "A blueprint for Human Rights & Business", Human Rights First

1. Text of Guiding Principles

Full text of “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework”.

English - Spanish - French - Arabic - Chinese - Russian

- Other translations by UN: Khmer - Mongolian
- Unofficial translation: Portuguese (by Conectas; the organization takes full responsibility)

The Guiding Principles were proposed to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the 2011 report to the Council by then-UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie.

- Report with full text of Guiding Principles & commentaries:

English - Spanish - French - Arabic - Chinese - Russian

- unofficial translation: Japanese - by Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Ctr. (HURIGHTS OSAKA)

The Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on 16 June 2011.  Full text of its resolution:
English - Spanish - French - Arabic - Chinese - Russian

• This resolution also established the UN Working Group on business & human rights.  See our portal on the Working Group here.

• Click here for our portal on the work of UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie during his 2005-2011 mandate, including his work drafting the Guiding Principles.

  
2. Official UN Guidance

In November 2011, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued "The corporate responsibility to respect human rights: An interpretive guide"
[español] "La Responsabilidad de las Empresas de Respetar los Derechos Humanos: Guía para la interpretación"

3. Commentaries

Click here for commentaries by NGOs, academics and others.

4. Implementation & uses of Guiding Principles

The following pages feature implementation and uses of the Guiding Principles since the UN Human Rights Council endorsed them on 16 June 2011.

• Companies
• Governments
• Intergovernmental organizations
• Academic institutions
• Investors
• Legal organizations
• National Human Rights Institutions
• NGOs & trade unions
   

• For general statements on implementation of the Guiding Principles in response to a call for input by the UN Secretary-General in 2012, click here.
• For additional references to the Guiding Principles prior to their endorsement, see this page on the Guiding Principles on our portal about the work of UN Special Representative Ruggie. 
• For applications of the "Protect, Respect and Remedy" framework (endorsed by the Council in 2008) identified by UN Special Representative Ruggie during his mandate (July 2005-June 2011), click here.

 
5. Events

Click here for events related to the Guiding Principles.

6. History of the Guiding Principles

For the history of how the Guiding Principles were developed by UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie and endorsed by the Human Rights Council, see the following pages of our portal on the Special Representative's work:

• the "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2008, which the Guiding Principles were created to implement
• portal page on the Guiding Principles
• Nov 2010-Jan 2011 consultation on draft Guiding Principles conducted by Special Representative Ruggie
• Jun 2011 Human Rights Council session, at which the Guiding Principles were endorsed

More generally, all of Ruggie's work as UN Special Representative on business & human rights (2005-2011), as well as related materials including extensive background studies and reports prepared by Ruggie, his team, and others to inform his mandate, fed into the development of the Guiding Principles, as did commentaries on his work and submissions to his mandate by civil society, business and other stakeholders.  All these materials are available on our portal on his work: click here

7. Additional materials

Click here for our website section on the Guiding Principles, which includes all materials on our site that make substantial reference to the Guiding Principles.