The Corporate Responsibility to Respect (CR2R): Context and sector specific human rights impact assessment

As momentum for ESG investing builds, portfolio companies must focus on implementing their responsibility to respect human rights, which lies at the core of sustainable business operations. The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights establishes the internationally recognized framework to enable the corporate responsibility to respect human rights (CR2R). What do investors need to know about CR2R to hold their portfolio companies accountable for their human rights performance?   

The Investor Alliance for Human Rights has developed a five-part webinar series that systematically discusses the elements of CR2R. The Guiding Principles establish that both investors and companies must respect human rights and prevent, mitigate, and remediate harms. By communicating precise expectations to portfolio companies, investors are better able to assess and address their human rights risks, while contributing to rights-respecting and socially sustainable investment activities.     

This CR2R webinar series is aimed at informing and supporting investors in their engagements with their portfolio companies on their human rights performance, including investors participating in the Investor Alliance’s initiative engaging companies that scored poorly on the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.    

The first webinar focused on Human Rights Policies and Governance and can be viewed here. This second webinar will examine context and sector specific human rights impact assessment (HRIA) as an essential first step in the human rights due diligence process. Register here and watch this videolog for an overview of the HRDD process.  

This webinar will introduce the purpose of HRIA and its value to investors as a form of corporate disclosure. The steps of a robust HRIA process will be elaborated upon and an example of the evaluation of HRIA effectiveness presented. Different approaches to conducting HRIAs will be highlighted to demonstrate the importance of a tailored approach that allows for sectoral adaptations and context specificity. 

Speakers:

• Rebecca DeWinter-Schmitt, Associate Director, Investor Alliance for Human Rights
• Tulika Bansal, Senior Advisor, Danish Institute for Human Rights
• Nathalie Maréchal, Senior Policy and Partnerships Manager, Ranking Digital Rights
• Dunstan Allison-Hope, Vice-President, Business for Social Responsibility
• Yann Wyss, Global Lead, Social Impact, Nestle

Future webinars in the series will explore additional elements of human rights due diligence, effective grievance mechanisms, and meaningful stakeholder engagement. 

Watch a recording of this webinar:

Slides from the webinar are linked below. Videologs related to this webinar can be found here.

Background Materials

International frameworks:

• OHCHR, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Principle 18
• OHCHR, The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: An Interpretive Guide, see pp. 36-45

Benchmarking methodology:

• Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, 2020 Methodology, Theme B: Embedding Respect and Human Rights Due Diligence, pp. 53-65

Reporting frameworks:

• SHIFT and Mazars LLP, The UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework with Implementation Guidance, Part B: Defining the Focus of Reporting, pp. 48-55, and C.3 Assessing Impacts, pp. 66-71

Guidance:

• Danish Institute for Human Rights, Human Rights Impact Assessment Guidance and Toolbox
• IAHR, Investor Toolkit on Human Rights, Tool 5: Key human rights questions for companies, pp. 47-49
• Global Compact Network Netherlands, Oxfam and Shift, Doing Business, 3.3 Assessing Impacts
• NomoGaia, Human Rights Impact Assessment Tool
• Global Compact Network Germany, What does effective human rights risk management look like? 5 insights from practice
• Global Compact Network Germany, twentyfifty, DIMR, Assessing Human Rights Risks and Impacts: Perspectives from Corporate Practice

Examples of HRIAs:

• DIHR and Nestle, Talking the Human Rights Walk
• Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), An Independent Assessment of the Human Rights Impact of Facebook in Myanmar
• BSR, Human Rights Review: Facebook Oversight Board
• BSR, Google Celebrity Recognition API Human Rights Assessment
• BSR, A Human Rights Assessment of Meta’s Expansion of End-to-End Encryption

Webinar:

• Investor Alliance for Human Rights, Human Rights Impact Assessments

Perspectives:

• BSR, Input to the High Commissioner report on the practical application of the UNGPs to the activities of technology companies