Human Rights Due-Diligence in High Risk Circumstances: Practical Strategies for Businesses

This report presents learning and insights from business practitioners regarding the strategies and practices they have found most effective when conducting human rights due diligence in high risk circumstances. High risk circumstances are situations in which the likelihood of severe human rights impacts is greatest.

Human rights due diligence (HRDD) consists of the processes that help businesses become aware of the actual and potential human rights impacts on people associated with their business and take appropriate action to prevent and address those impacts. From the perspective of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), high risk circumstances should be the highest priority for company action since they present the greatest risks to individuals. In such situations, it is therefore especially critical for companies to conduct effective HRDD. Moreover, high risk circumstances for human rights often present high risk to the business as well, including commercial, reputational, investor related and legal risks. This convergence creates a constructive opportunity for human rights leaders within companies to gain the necessary buy in for identifying and addressing human rights risks and impacts.