Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework

This report contains the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles) developed by Professor John Ruggie during his mandate as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Business and Human Rights. The Principles were endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011. Building on the UN "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework's three pillars, also developed by the SRSG, the Guiding Principles provide an authoritative global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse human rights impacts linked to business activity. The Guiding Principles highlight the steps states should take to meet their duty to protect against corporate-related human rights abuses. They also provide a blueprint for businesses to know and show that they are meeting their responsibility to respect human rights, and to reduce the risk of being involved with human rights harms. Finally, they constitute a set of benchmarks for all stakeholders to assess the actions of states and businesses in this regard. The Guiding Principles are the product of six years of research and multistakeholder consultation.