Today the United Nations released a much-anticipated set of Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights…The Guiding Principles seek to provide for the first time an authoritative global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse human rights impacts linked to business activity. The UN Human Rights Council will consider formal endorsement of the text at its June 2011 session. The Guiding Principles are the product of six years of research and extensive consultations, led by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, Harvard Professor John Ruggie…The Guiding Principles highlight what steps States should take to foster business respect for human rights; provide a blueprint for companies to know and show that they respect human rights, and reduce the risk of causing or contributing to human rights harm; and constitute a set of benchmarks for stakeholders to assess business respect for human rights.