Human rights and the UN Special Representative

In July 2005, Professor John Ruggie was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. His mandate included identifying and clarifying standards of corporate responsibility and accountability for transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights.

His report in April 2008 reiterates that it is the state's duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including businesses. In relation to companies, the report says:

• in addition to compliance with national laws, the baseline responsibility of companies is to respect human rights
• the corporate responsibility to respect exists independently of States' duties
• a company cannot compensate for human rights harm by performing good deeds elsewhere
• to discharge the responsibility to respect requires due diligence

Ruggie points out that there are few if any internationally recognised human rights that a business cannot impact, or be perceived to impact in some manner, so companies should consider all such rights. He goes on to suggest that due diligence should include:

• A broad human rights policy
• Impact assessments
• Integration (which requires leadership, training and capacity to respond)
• Tracing performance

If you want access to the full report and a very wide range of documents prepared by John Ruggie's team, there is a link in the resource section of this Tool, under the heading 'Human Rights and Business'.