"CHR Fostering Development of an Access to Remedy Institute to Address Environmental and Human Rights Harms from Business Activities", 30 Apr 2021

Corporations are under pressure to provide grievance mechanisms and procedures that offer fair, fast, and accessible remedies for harmful environmental, human rights, and social impacts. Between the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, and requirements of commercial banks, the International Finance Corporation, and others, corporations need to offer a sustained, committed plan to provide access to remedy. For those corporations that see this as more than box-checking or window-dressing but as a strategic opportunity to build value through community engagement, good-practice advice and expertise is required to make these mechanisms work to the mutual benefit of the corporation and affected communities.

The Access to Remedy Institute (ARI), now being developed, will provide:

• Good-practices information and database;
• Access to experts to assist in achieving remedy in specific cases and contexts;
• A neutral convening space for creative dialogue; and
• Qualified financial support to enable participation by affected communities in a promising process to achieve remedy.

In sum, the ARI will be a center of excellence in how to operationalize procedures for achieving fast, fair, and culturally sensitive remedies for harms resulting from business activity.