Human Rights Due Diligence: The Role of States

Tuesday 21 January 2014, by European Coalition for Corporate Justice

This brief report is an update of the report released in December 2012 entitled “Human Rights Due Diligence: The Role of States.” That report was authored by an Expert Group consisting of Professor Olivier De Schutter, Professor Anita Ramasastry, Mark B. Taylor and Robert C. Thompson.

The report and the work of the Expert Group was the outcome of the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) Project, launched in 2012 by the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ), and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA). The project sought to establish the extent to which the legal systems of States already make use of due diligence regulations to ensure that businesses respect established standards. Further, the project sought to describe a range of regulatory options building on or inspired by existing regulations that policymakers might use to take the next steps in ensuring businesses respect human rights.