The purpose of this Background Paper is to give an overview of the topic of human rights and business and to provide some common foundations for discussion by participants  during the 14th Informal ASEM1 Seminar on Human Rights. Section 1 reflects on the evolution of the business and human rights field…Section 2 relates developments with regard to business and human rights in the European and Asian regions respectively, including steps taken to implement the UN Guiding Principles specifically. Section 3 addresses the four working group themes: 1. State duty to protect against human rights abuses by businesses; 2. Corporate responsibility and its contribution to human rights implementation; 3. Monitoring, Reporting and Access to remedies; 4. Multi-stakeholder cooperation. The paper concludes by highlighting some emerging issues that may influence the business and human agenda in the future…