United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) embody principles that relate to the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The UNGPs implement the United Nations "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework, composed of three essential components, particularly: (i) the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business enterprises, through appropriate policies, regulation and adjudication; (ii) the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which dictates that business enterprises act with due diligence to avoid infringing on the rights of others and to address their adverse impacts on human rights; and (iii) the need for greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial. The state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties does not make the state liable for abuses by private actors. However, the State may be liable if it failed to prevent, investigate, punish and redress private actors’ abuse. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights refers to internationally recognized human rights (i.e., the International Bill of Human Rights and the rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work), which would prevail should national standards fall below international standards.