A/HRC/14/27 responsibility exists independently of States’ human rights duties. It applies to all companies in all situations. 58. What is the scope of this responsibility? What acts or attributes does it encompass? Scope is defined by the actual and potential human rights impacts generated through a company’s own business activities and through its relationships with other parties, such as business partners, entities in its value chain, other non-State actors and State agents. In addition, companies need to consider how particular country and local contexts might shape the human rights impact of their activities and relationships. Such attributes as companies’ size, influence or profit margins may be relevant factors in determining the scope of their promotional CSR activities, but they do not define the scope of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Direct and indirect impacts do. 59. Because companies can affect virtually the entire spectrum of internationally recognized rights,33 the corporate responsibility to respect applies to all such rights. In practice, some rights will be more relevant than others in particular industries and circumstances and will be the focus of heightened company attention. However, situations may change, so broader periodic assessments are necessary to ensure that no significant issue is overlooked. 60. When conducting such assessments, companies can find an authoritative list of rights at a minimum in the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the main instruments through which it has been codified: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), coupled with the ILO core conventions.34 The principles that these instruments embody are the foundational elements of the international human rights regime. Yet, because they are State-based instruments, there has been some confusion over their relevance to companies. Why should companies be concerned with them if they don’t impose legal obligations on companies directly? The confusion is easily resolved: companies can and do infringe on the enjoyment of the rights that these instruments recognize. Moreover, those rights are the baseline benchmarks by which other social actors judge companies’ human rights practices. In short, companies should look to these instruments as authoritative lists of internationally recognized rights. Further guidance on how companies might impact such rights is provided in the OHCHR publication, Human Rights Translated: A Business Reference Guide.35 61. Depending on circumstances, companies may need to consider additional standards: for instance, they should also take into account international humanitarian law36 in conflictaffected areas (which pose particular challenges) and standards specific to “at-risk” or vulnerable groups (for example, indigenous peoples or children) in projects affecting them.37 33 34 35 36 37 GE.10-12629 The range of company impacts on rights is documented in A/HRC/8/5/Add.2. The ILO considers eight conventions to be “core” or “fundamental”, and they form the basis of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/ declaration/thedeclaration/textdeclaration/lang--en/index.htm. This report was produced jointly with the Global Compact, the International Business Leaders Forum and the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University. Available from: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Human%20Rights%20Translated_web.pdf. International Committee of the Red Cross, “Business and International Humanitarian Law”. Available from: http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/business-ihl-150806. The Special Representative thanks the Ethical Globalization Initiative for convening a workshop on integrating gender issues into the framework; see, for information, http://www.reports-andmaterials.org/Gender-meeting-for-Ruggie-29-Jun-2009.pdf. 13