INPROL Blog: New Publication - Business, Human Rights, and Sustainability Sourcebook

New Publication: Business, Human Rights, and Sustainability Sourcebook

A Blog by Lelia Mooney

Forum on Business and Human Rights, Geveva, Switzerland, December 2, 2014. Photo from the United States Mission Geneva. Some Rights Reserved.*

It has been increasingly recognized that business activities can affect human rights both positively and negatively. As a result, a new system of regulation (made up of both soft law and international law) has emerged to ensure that business behavior is aligned with human rights and sustainability standards. The complexity of the legal and regulatory questions emerging from this new field of practice require that rule of law practitioners be well versed in new normative and informal frameworks for businesses.

Emerging business standards have been shaped by a number of international developments. At the turn of the century, for instance, the United Nations engaged the private sector and different industries through the UN Global Compact. The Compact is an initiative that aligns corporate practices with ten universally accepted principles of international human rights, labor, environment, and anticorruption law. Today, the initiative has over 12,000 participants.

In addition, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework in 2011. The Principles invoke the State's responsibility to protect human rights, and assert the private sector's responsibility to respect human rights. They also establish and facilitate access to remedy mechanisms that address human rights grievances. In practice, this means that companies implement the guidance through human rights impact assessments.

Moreover, the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development addressed the most pressing global environmental and development challenges confronting the world. As a result of the Conference, a development agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals was set out. Included in the Sustainable Development Goals was the role of the private sector in helping to achieve development through various sustainability approaches. This work has influenced the number of corporations that are now approaching human rights as part of their policy and operations.

Elsewhere (here and here, for instance), I have written about the reputational damages that corporate clients can suffer by not integrating human rights and sustainability standards into their policies. Operations that lack human rights standards can cause businesses more harm than litigation itself. The failure of companies to incorporate such standards can sometimes lead communities, consumers, and society at large to deny or cancel an industry's "social license to operate" in both developed and emerging markets.

Through my work in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, I have seen first-hand how transformational the integration of a human rights and sustainability frameworks can be for businesses, civil society, governments and affected communities. As a board member of platforms like the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the UN Global Compact Business for the Rule of Law Initiative, I've also seen how multi-stakeholder dialogues can play a role in preventing, mitigating, and managing human rights risks.

These experiences shaped my approach to developing the Business, Human Rights, and Sustainability Sourcebook. The resource was drafted in response to growing demand for an overview of the spectra of regulatory instruments that are being developed within the emerging field of business and human rights. As a result, this Sourcebook brings together the core instruments that constitute the International Bill of Human Rights and Sustainability Conventions, and the growing body of hard and soft law that address emerging regional and international regulation of business, human rights, and sustainability. It also provides reference to an extensive list of soft law, industry-related standards, and multi-stakeholder initiatives that address the issue of corporate responsibility through dialogues and interactions. Finally, it adds to the growing dialogue on the integration of human rights and environmental, social, and governance standards as part of corporate sustainability practices.

At its core, the Sourcebook seeks to support rule of law practitioners that are excited to engage in an emerging and promising field. Especially, I hope that the Sourcebook will be of practical use as the regulatory mechanisms that it explores have an increasing impact on daily rule of law work.

*This photo was resized, but no other changes were made. Use of this photo does not necessarily indicate the artist or the artist's organization support for this material. More information on the image can be found here. Information about the license can be found here.

About the Author Lelia Mooney is the Director of the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law. Previously, Mooney was a director at Partners Global in Washington, D.C., where she led several national and regional rule of law, governance, business, and human rights initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Earlier in her career, she was cofounder and director of the USAID-funded Inter-American Democracy Network. With Asociacion Conciencia in Argentina and Partners of the Americas in Washington, D.C., she served as the head of mission of the USAID-funded International Foundation for Election Systems Governance, Civil Society and Transparency project in Paraguay and was the Rule of Law, Gender, and Capacity Building specialist of the USAID-funded Worldwide Women's Legal Rights Initiative. Lelia is a member of the Council of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of International Law where she also serves as a Liaison Officer. She is a former member of the International Board of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and of the United Nations Global Compact Business for the Rule of Law Framework Initiative.