"Corporate human rights due diligence - identifying and leveraging emerging practice"

Flowing from the Working Group’s vision, an overarching aim of its 2018 General Assembly report is to reinforce two key messages (to businesses and Governments respectively): [1] Guidance and practical experience on how to implement human rights due diligence in practice now exist, and a lack of understanding cannot be an excuse for inaction. [2] Emerging practices among leading companies are showing the way for how human rights due diligence can be done. Governments need to incentivize and support the wider application by business of emerging good practices and also apply such practices in their own roles as economic actors, including in the practice of State-owned or controlled business enterprises, public procurement and export/import/investment promotion.

Tentatively, the Working Group further plans to use the report and the consultation process to help: reaffirm and raise awareness on the key elements of effective corporate human rights due diligence as set out in the Guiding Principles,... provide an overview of the current “state of play” of business implementation of the responsibility to respect human rights in practice, [and]... identify emerging good practices and innovations of corporate human rights due diligence in line with the Guiding Principles across sectors.

Starting in February 2018, the Working Group has launched a consultation process to inform its work on this topic. This process conducted during the first of 2018 it will engage with a range of stakeholders (including business, civil society and governments) through in-person consultations and written inputs.

• Background note
• Open multi-stakeholder consultation: 17 May, Geneva. Agenda and registration details will be posted on this page soon.
• All interested parties are invited to submit relevant material and information to the Working Group, including case studies/good practice examples. Contact: [email protected]. Deadline: 30 May 2018