"Guidance on Respecting the Rights of Human Rights Defenders," 10 Dec 2023

This guidance aims to sharpen the focus of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights on human rights defenders and the wider civic space in which they work. It offers an analytical and operational framework to identify and address risks to human rights defenders across key elements of VPs implementation: risk assessment and due diligence; stakeholder and community engagement; and relationships with security forces and host country governments.

... This guidance supports and informs the elevated priority that the VPI now places on human rights defenders. It seeks to contribute to safe and enabling environments for their vital work by setting forth processes and actions to identify and diminish risks for—and in turn adverse impacts on—HRDs across a range of circumstances and situations. This guidance also outlines practical ways that VPs implementers and the VPI as a multistakeholder platform can play a “proactive” conflict prevention role consistent with its defined mandate and limited capacity. The VPI not only has a responsibility to support HRDs, but also an opportunity to advocate for the “shared space” of the rule of law, accountable governance and civic freedoms upon which companies and civil society alike depend.

... Although focused on the extractives and agribusiness sectors, this guidance is also relevant to the renewable energy and timber sectors among others...