A/HRC/44/43 Expanding the scope of governance mechanisms 40. Multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms address corruption and transparency. Parallel mechanisms exist in the business and human rights arena. They address key sectors such as the maritime, extractive construction and sport sectors.84 Governance mechanisms promoting accountability and transparency could assist other sectors. 41. Since corruption involving business often leads to human rights abuses, stakeholders should consider how a more integrated approach might prevent both kinds of harmful acts. When developing new governance mechanisms, or enhancing existing ones, efforts to implement the Guiding Principles should be incorporated into anti-corruption efforts. The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, which is both a set of principles and a multi-stakeholder initiative explicitly geared towards promoting respect for human rights, provides a good model. 42. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative promotes the open and accountable management of extractive resources, and its standard requires the disclosure of information along the extractive industry value chain, from how extraction rights are awarded, to how revenues are managed and allocated by government, and how they benefit the public.85 In the 53 implementing countries, the Initiative is supported by coalitions of government representatives, companies and civil society actors. While it has been somewhat successful in advancing anti-corruption messages, one weakness is that some States facing corruption in the oil, gas and mining sector are not members of the Initiative.86 The Initiative rightly states that while the costs of transparency to industry are low, the benefits can be substantial because transparency generates trust between stakeholders and local communities, enables better risk management and can improve a company’s reputation through demonstrated accountability and leadership. 43. The Initiative has embedded governance requirements in its membership framework, including engagement with civil society and adherence to its civil society protocol. The Initiative should align its expectations and requirements for States and companies with the Guiding Principles, ensuring that both are committed to human rights, anti-corruption and transparency pledges. Mandatory due diligence regulation 44. While anti-corruption commitments relate to national and international treaty-based legal requirements, respect for human rights is generally not a legal compliance matter. Companies engage in more robust due diligence and risk assessment as part of anticorruption compliance because of the risk of legal liability for bribery, and the potential, in some jurisdictions, to mitigate sanctions by demonstrating adequate compliance. Human rights due diligence enables enterprises to manage potential and actual adverse human rights impacts in which they are or could be involved. Preventing adverse impacts on people is the main purpose of such due diligence. It concerns risks to people, not risks to business, which has been the focus of legalistic approaches to anti-corruption compliance. In April 2020, the Commissioner for Justice of the European Commission announced the Commission’s commitment to introducing rules for mandatory corporate environmental and human rights due diligence.87 Mandatory human rights due diligence would help to counter corruption and promote human rights. 45. The Working Group welcomed the Study on Due Diligence Requirements through the Supply Chain, produced for the European Commission, 88 which reinforced previous 84 85 86 87 88 See, for example, the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (www.maritime-acn.org/) and the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (http://infrastructuretransparency.org/). See https://eiti.org/document/eiti-standard-2019?utm_source=Media+Contacts& utm_campaign=9b18c6eed2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_17_10_16_COPY_01&utm_ medium=email&utm_term=0_6ae237370b-9b18c6eed2-. See https://eiti.org/files/documents/eitis_role_in_addressing_corruption_en.pdf. See www.business-humanrights.org/en/eu-commissioner-for-justice-commits-to-legislation-onmandatory-due-diligence-for-companies. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Business/WG/STM_welcome_EU_study_HRDD.pdf. 13