'Methodologies for assessing business respect for human rights'

This online resource provides an overview of methodologies which can be used by different actors to identify, assess, track and monitor business respect for human rights.

In recent years, we have seen a trend towards the adoption of mandatory human rights due diligence laws alongside other policy and regulatory initiatives which seek to drive respect for human rights by business, including on corporate sustainability reporting and sustainable finance. With these hard law requirements has come an increasing reliance by business and other actors on tools and methodologies to identify impacts and track and monitor respect for human rights in value chains.

Methodologies considered in this resource include benchmarking; social audits, certification schemes and multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs); human rights impact assessment; management tools, reporting and ratings; worker-driven methodologies and technology-based approaches.

Consideration of these methodologies requires applying a critical, informed eye to ensure that their use is appropriate and reflects these benefits and limitations. This will be the case whether they are a part of a company’s human rights due diligence processes or where they are used to monitor businesses externally or assess the effectiveness of laws regulating business behaviour. This resource will help capacitate business, civil society, National Human Rights Institutions and other actors to understand the benefits and limitations of each of the different methodologies highlighted in the resource.