The COVID-19 crisis has exposed once more the vulnerabilities in value chains and precarity of global business operations – and the weakness of voluntary corporate action in addressing these issues. The devastating consequences are felt by millions of workers and communities around the world. However, there are signs this could change.

There has been growing momentum worldwide among governments, businesses, investors and civil society, for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD). Cross-sectoral regulation is already in place or under discussion in a number of European countries, including France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Germany, paving the way towards regional harmonisation.

In 2020, the EU Commission committed to introducing such legislation at EU level, and has just launched a public online consultation on ‘sustainable corporate governance’, including mandatory HREDD.

To coincide with the German presidency of the EU Council, we have produced a compendium of reflections on these developments, supported by and in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. We approached diverse voices from academia, public sector, civil society and business, from the global South and North to contribute and explore what meaningful EU mandatory due diligence and corporate accountability legislation should look like.

The compendium was presented at the Virtual Forum: Towards a Common Approach to Sustainable Supply Chains and Due Diligence" , organised by BMZ as part of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union.