November 2016

Around the world, communities and workers experience human rights abuses from companies. Land is taken without consent. Rivers and land is polluted. Workers work long hours for low wages, in unsafe conditions. Workers cannot organize collectively and bargain with employers. Workers die from unsafe conditions and face abuse and harassment.

What are the options for communities and workers to try to hold these companies to account and to gain some remedy for the harm they have experienced?

This guide shares the findings five years of research focused on whether or not a type of complaint mechanism – non-judicial mechanisms operating across countries – are effective in providing some kind of redress to workers and communities. It shares findings in a form that can potentially help communities and workers, or their partners – trade unions, community organizations, local, national and international non-governmental organizations – to make decisions about whether or not to use such a mechanisms, and if yes, how.