Global Business and Human Rights

Over the last few years NGOs have criticized numerous human rights violations in which German corporations were directly or indirectly involved. Blatant violations of human rights are occurring for instance in agriculture, in manufacturing and in the extractive industries. Germanwatch and MISEREOR have documented these cases in a report.

Adopted in 2011, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provide for the first time an internationally recognised set of recommendations for realising human rights in business. The Guiding Principles address both the duty of states to protect and the responsibility of companies to respect human rights.

Based on these UN Guiding Principles and additional instruments, Germanwatch and MISEREOR analysed the current implementation of these principles. The company survey conducted as part of this report reveals that implementation of the UN Guiding Principles by the companies concerned is still in the early stages. The report also demonstrates that the German government has still a great deal to do with regard to implementing the UN Guiding Principles.
 

The complete report is only available in German.
Download at http://www.germanwatch.org/de/8225