Mexico City, 17 March, 2021 - A new study developed by the Institute for Human Rights and Business at the University of Monterrey, and co-sponsored by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) and Oxfam Mexico, sheds light on how companies can fulfill their human rights responsibilities and obligations in Mexico.

The research analyses how corporate compliance processes have been adjusted to the anti-corruption legal framework, and how they could be adapted to strengthen compliance with human rights obligations. Although they face concrete challenges, to the extent that companies incorporate due diligence in their risk planning and prevention processes, they can lay the groundwork to ensure that business conduct respects human rights, and adopt good practices that allow them to prevent and mitigate the impacts generated as a result of their activities.

Funded by the Responsible Business Conduct in Latin America and the Caribbean (RBCLAC) Project Fund, and prepared by Humberto Cantú Rivera and Laura Esparza García, the study is published in a complex political and economic environment, in which government and business responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will have considerable impact and in which voluntary measures adopted by companies to improve their human rights performance have so far been significantly insufficient.

Projects such as the Mayan Train and the Morelos Integral Project, conflicts in the renewable energy and mining sectors, and multiple cases of complaints of irregularities in indigenous and citizen consultation processes are examples of the importance of considering the effects of business activity on human rights. The latent possibility of corruption, illicit enrichment and "corporate capture" make the study relevant, as it provides clues about the mechanisms with which companies operate in areas with weak governance, as well as ways to strengthen their compliance and due diligence processes with mechanisms for participation and dialogue with civil society, workers and communities impacted by business projects.

Contributions of the study

The publication provides tools for the private sector to contribute to the National Human Rights Program (2020-2024), in particular priority strategy 3.6, which defines among its specific actions "to promote human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and repair adverse impacts generated by public, private or mixed business activity, and to promote transparency and accountability in supply chains." These tools include the adoption of a specific business policy, the assessment of actual and potential impacts, the development of processes that allow for diligence and measures to increase transparency, effective participation and accountability.

The study explores how corporate compliance processes were aligned with the anti-corruption legal framework two decades ago, and proposes that they are developing in a similar way today, around the concept of human rights due diligence. This is within the international framework of corporate human rights obligations, comprised of the standards developed by the United Nations Working Group on business and human rights, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Diana Figueroa, Representative for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean of the BHRRC, stated that "we are facing a paradigm shift in which corporate social responsibility and compliance must take a leap forward. Companies must now prevent, mitigate and repair human rights impacts through due diligence processes. While companies are used to assessing risks to themselves, respecting human rights means that they must focus on the risks to the people and groups affected by their activities."

Alexandra Haas, Executive Director of Oxfam Mexico, emphasized that "it is not just about 'complying with the law,' but about generating conditions to align corporate behavior with respect for human rights. Companies can get ahead of the regulatory deployment and develop good practices, build robust processes of dialogue with their workers, with the communities they serve and the legal frameworks in which they operate."

The study was presented at the forum "Human rights due diligence in Mexico: From discussion to action"which included the participation of civil society, the private sector, academia, affected communities, the government, trade unions and representatives of the Working Group, the OHCHR, the ILO and the OECD. Participants discussed how to implement due diligence processes in Mexico and establish rules to promote greater legal certainty, access to justice and mechanisms to prevent, protect and redress people and communities affected by corporate activity.

An edited English translation of the executive summary is available here.

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Press contacts:

Diana Figueroa Prado Representative for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. Phone number: +52 1 55 4354 5946. Email: [email protected]

Jorge Romero León Director of Programs, Oxfam Mexico. Phone number: +52 1 55 8107 1533. Email: [email protected]

Read the full report and its executive summary (in Spanish):