A/HRC/11/13
page 16
business context.42 Similarly, the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights has developed a
matrix mapping elements of the International Bill of Human Rights onto various business
functions, making it more accessible to company staff.43 The Special Representative will
continue to engage developers and users of such tools, aiming to achieve further clarity and
consistency while maintaining the integrity of the underlying human rights standards.
58. Confusion has also existed because the first generation of advocacy in business and human
rights, culminating in the Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and
Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights,44 so co-mingled the respective
responsibilities of States and companies that it was difficult if not impossible to disentangle the
two. Unsurprisingly, this approach was rejected by Governments and business alike. Here, too,
there has been good progress: the “protect, respect and remedy” framework now provides a
common platform of differentiated yet complementary responsibilities on the basis of which to
move forward.
Positive acts
59. Some stakeholders have queried whether the responsibility to respect is a mere analogue to
a “negative duty”. The answer should be clear from the foregoing: the responsibility to respect
requires companies to undertake human rights due diligence to become aware of, prevent and
address adverse human rights impacts. Moreover, for companies to know they are not infringing
on others’ rights requires mechanisms at the operational level, to which affected individuals and
communities can bring grievances concerning company-related impacts and which companies
may need to establish where none exist. By definition, these are positive acts.
60. There will be variations in the details of due diligence and grievance mechanisms
depending on specific situations, and the Special Representative will continue to explore them.
But the underlying principles should be observed irrespective of situational factors.
Beyond respect?
61. In addition to legal compliance, the responsibility to respect human rights is the baseline
responsibility of all companies in all situations. But some stakeholders maintain that more should
be required of companies, while many companies claim already to be doing more.
62. Clearly, companies may undertake additional commitments voluntarily or as a matter of
philanthropy. Moreover, some have developed new business opportunities by offering goods and
services more closely aligned with basic needs, as in bottom-of-the-pyramid strategies and other
42
A joint project of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University,
International Business Leaders Forum, OHCHR, and Global Compact Office;
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/globalization/business/docs/Human_Rights_Translated_w
eb.pdf.
43
http://blihr.org/.
44
E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2.
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