In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council adopted the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The central element of these principles is the state obligation to protect human rights. This duty requires that states take appropriate measures to protect people against human rights violations by corporations. Companies have the responsibility to prevent, mitigate and, as necessary, remedy human rights violations they cause, contribute to or are linked tothrough their business relationships. In some countries, this human rights due diligence obligation has already been incorporated into national law... In light of these developments, the NGOs Amnesty International, Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service, Germanwatch and Oxfam Germany in 2016 commissioned Prof. Dr. Remo Klinger, Prof. Dr. Markus Krajewski, David Krebs and Constantin Hartmann to develop a legislative proposal for a German human rights due diligence obligation, the “Human Rights Due Diligence Act”... The legal text can be found at the end of this paper.