• Business and human rights

Business and human rights

The tools in this guide for Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs)  are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and help in assessing the impact of business on human rights.

The guide introduces the theory and history of HRIAs, and provides a summary of all the HRIA tools that have been developed and how these tools can best be used. The purpose is to facilitate the private sector in the selection of an HRIA tool. It identifies five HRIA tools, including:

• community HRIA guide for foreign investment projects
• guide for conflict sensitive business practice: guidance for extractive industries
• guide to human rights impact assessment and management
  
• human rights compliance assessment
• human rights risk tools

The paper notes that all tools have their specific characteristics, approaches and target users and tools are available for various kinds of uses. The paper suggests that HRIAs help a company to gain:

• a thorough understanding of the (potential) impact of corporate activities
• a better understanding of the stakeholders’ perspectives
• ways to manage corporate impacts in a process that benefits all involved
  

The paper argues that HRIAs not only determine the past, present and future effects of the direct or indirect activities of a company, they also provide the company, its partners and stakeholders with an insight into the broad range of opportunities for respecting, protecting and promoting human rights.

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend