The Guiding Principles were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011, supported by governments from all regions of the world.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

A. The three pillars of the UN Guiding Principles

One of the major and widely recognized contributions of the Guiding Principles has been to clearly set out the duties of States and the responsibilities of companies to ensure that businesses operate with respect for human rights.

The Guiding Principles are founded on three pillars:

• The State duty to protect human rights against abuse by third parties, including business, through appropriate policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication;
• The corporate responsibility to respect human rights, meaning to act with due diligence to avoid infringing on the rights of others and address adverse impacts with which they are involved;
• The need for greater access to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial, for victims of business-related human rights abuse.

Since their endorsement, the Guiding Principles have driven a convergence in standards on business and human rights across the international arena, reinforcing their position as the authoritative global standard on business and human rights.

LINK: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: https://www.ungpreporting.org/resources/the-ungps/