Business and Human Rights

Issue

BHR as a field is about ensuring companies are able to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. The guiding force in this field is the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the “UNGPs”), which were adopted unanimously and endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The UNGPs framework consists of three pillars: • The States’ duty to protect against human rights abuses • Corporate responsibility to respect human rights • Effective remedies for victims of business-related abuses In recent years, the legal landscape has begun to shift. Soft law, such as the UNGPs, is crystallizing into hard law. Courts around the world are extending their jurisdiction to human rights impacts that occur extraterritorially and throughout a business’s value chain. Companies have much to gain in terms of managing sustainability-related risks, but they also face new areas of potential liability.

What we do

We help clients to engage with governments and international bodies, ensuring businesses’ voices are heard in the development of new legal frameworks. We have acted in some of the leading disputes in this field, wherever, and however, they were brought: in the U.S. under the Alien Tort Claims Act, in English parent company liability cases, and in other courts exercising universal jurisdiction over alleged complicity in international crimes. We understand the legal risks associated with adverse human rights impacts.
Our integrated practice group builds on this foundation to provide the full spectrum of BHR advice, including:
- Preventing and reporting on modern slavery
- Supply chain transparency
- Human rights due diligence
- Risk assessment and deal approvals
- Human rights investigations and crisis management
- Managing the remediation of harm, including operational level grievance mechanisms
- Dealing with human rights-related claims, wherever, and however, they are brought

Experience