Human Rights Due Diligence: A Primer

While governments hold the primary responsibility for safeguarding human rights, businesses also have an important role to play as they may affect human rights through their activities or business relationships. Abuses by businesses can be direct, such as discrimination within the working environment based on race, gender, and sexual orientation, or paying workers below the national minimum wage. Abuses can also be indirect, such as forced labor within supply chains, or company activities that have violated indigenous communities’ right to land and livelihood. Since the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) were published in 2011, there has been legislative momentum in enacting human rights due diligence laws worldwide.