What is Human Rights?
According to the UN Guiding Principles, Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) is a process for identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for human rights impacts. This means analyzing operations to identify, understand, and resolve any adverse human rights impacts and violations. This can include actual impacts occurring in the present and potential impacts that may occur in the future. Applying this to businesses, HRDD ultimately functions as a risk management tool that businesses can and should undertake.
What does conducting HRDD actually involve?
According to OHCHR, conducting HRDD involves four essential components:
1. “Identifying and assessing actual or potential adverse human rights impacts that may be caused, contributed to, or be directly linked to the company;”[1]
2. “Integrating findings from impact assessments across relevant company processes and taking appropriate action according to its involvement in the impact;”[2]
3. “Tracking the effectiveness of measures in order to assess whether they are having the desired effect;”
4. “Communicating with stakeholders about how impacts are being addressed and showing stakeholders that there are adequate policies and processes in place.”
More specifically, the steps include:
read more in detail below
1. Preparation
This is the first stage of any HRDD, during which the assessor clarifies the relevant legal, regulatory, economic, environmental and social context of the assessment. During this stage, the outer parameters of the assessment are established.
2. Screening
This step involves a narrowing of the range of measures and activities to be subject to assessment to determine policies, projects or interventions are most likely to have an impact on the enjoyment of human rights, which helps ensure the specific focus of the assessment.
The screening process also helps to identify the exact human rights issues in play and the stakeholders that may be affected by the planned policy or project.
3. Scoping
This step involves drafting the terms of reference (TORs) for the assessment itself, providing a road map for the process of assessment and the responsibilities of the assessor(s).
This stage also involves outlining options and scenarios as well as identifying the relevant indicators to be used in the assessment. At this stage, a baseline assessment of the current human rights situation is carried out from which the potential effects can be foreseen and actual impacts can be measured.
4. Evidence Gathering
This phase of the impact assessment methodology involves gathering evidence about the impacts of the policy intervention, whether actual or potential, depending on whether the HRDD is ex ante or ex post. For this purpose, HRDD practitioners often rely on the many methodological tools that have been developed by economists and social scientists, such as statistical methods, surveys, economic modeling, participatory assessment methods, key informant interviewing guides, etc.
5. Consultation
Given the emphasis on human rights principles of participation and transparency, HRDDs are expected to involve a broad degree of consultation both during the process of assessment and in respect of the conclusions and recommendations.
It can be argued that the strength and legitimacy of the HRDD itself depends upon there having been a thoroughgoing consultation process based on participatory methods which have been developed for project and policy development.
6. Analysis
This step consists of implementing the TORs, and the actual assessment of the human rights impacts of the policy intervention, whether potential impacts (in case of ex ante assessments) or actual impacts (in case of ex post assessments).
This stage will involve an analysis of the data gathered during stage (4) to verify the impacts of the intervention(s) identified during scoping. An essential feature of this analysis—that is likely to differ from other types of IAs—is that it will be conducted in reference to human rights norms and standards, e.g. analyzing the information collected on the potential impacts of the proposed policy or intervention relative to the government’s legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights.
7. Conclusions and Recommendations
In this step, assessors develop overall conclusions regarding the impacts of the policy intervention and propose recommendations for corrective action to mitigate negative human rights impacts related to the policy intervention, and optimize positive ones.
8. Monitoring & Evaluation
This step involves subjecting the HRDD itself to assessment to determine the extent to which it has met its objectives and is acceptable to stakeholders.
This step will also involve an examination of the extent to which the duty-bearers have incorporated the recommendations of the HRDDs during implementation of the policy intervention and it enables information-gathering about the actual impacts of the policy intervention.
9. Preparing of the Report
Upon completion of the foregoing substantive steps, the final stage of an HRDD involves the preparation of the report which should outline the impact assessment and recommendations on mitigation and enhanced measures along with an evaluation of the process and a plan for future monitoring.
Why should companies conduct HRDD?
Conducting HRDD will help the company avoid and reduce any adverse human rights impacts on its operations. This is incredibly important for the company’s social impact on the world, the people involved in its operations and the company’s reputation among consumers and investors.
Conducting HRDD is also paramount to a company’s success because it allows them to comply with existing and incoming Human Rights and Human Rights Due Diligence laws, which, if not adhered to, have significant pecuniary sanctions. The number of mandatory HRDD requirements for companies worldwide is increasing; countries have enacted their own national HRDD laws, such as Germany’s ‘Supply Chain Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct’, Norway’s ‘Transparency Act’, and France’s ‘Duty of Vigilance Act’ to name a few. Additionally, EU-wide legislation, such as the CSDDD, would enact EU-wide mandatory HRDD across many European and non-European companies.
Finally, conducting HRDD is a great way for companies to engage with all of their stakeholders on important issues in their operations and really understand their experiences and opinions on issues. Examples of stakeholders can vary, but they do include value chain workers and local community members, to name a few, who may not have a voice or grievance mechanisms in place for issues impacting them created by the company. HRDD can give them a voice and ensure their protection.
What tools can a company use to conduct their HRDD?
Companies can use many different tools to conduct their HRDD. These tools can vary in terms of level of detail, industry, and region.
For example, the United Nations Development Program's ''Human Rights Self-Assessment Training Tool'', based on the answers to many questions, rates the company's scale, scope, irremediability, and likelihood of each human rights risk. The tool is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and its answers create a heat map of industry-specific risks to help companies assess which risks need to be addressed and which are more urgent.
Another example is the Danish Institute of Human Rights ''Human Rights Compliance Assessment Tool''. This comprehensive tool provides companies with approximately 200 questions and 1000 indicators, divided into eight sections, each corresponding to a particular business area. These areas include Management, Human Resources, Workplace Health and Safety, Product Quality and Marketing, Community Impact, Security Arrangements, Legal and Governmental Affairs, Contractors and Supply Chains. All the questions/indicators are derived from international human rights law and labour instruments and are regularly updated.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
