How to conduct human rights impact assessments as part of company ESG programs

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🗞️ Driving the news: Conducting human rights impact assessments is essential for companies to identify and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights, integrating these concerns into broader compliance efforts

🔭 The context: The European Union's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive has pushed human rights into the mainstream, covering topics from living wages to preventing forced labor
• Businesses are increasingly held accountable for human rights, paralleling developments since the 1980s involving major incidents like the Bhopal gas leak and the Exxon Valdez oil spill

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Addressing human rights issues within ESG programs helps ensure ethical business practices, positively impacting global social justice and environmental sustainability

⏭️ What's next: Companies should integrate human rights into their risk management and compliance systems, conduct regular assessments, and prepare for potential crises, including black swan events

💬 One quote: "Most companies have well developed legal and compliance functions that can be leveraged to incorporate human rights," said Tara Giunta, Paul Hastings

📈 One stat: More than 50% of cases under OECD guidelines for businesses include human rights violation allegations, with manufacturing and mining sectors most frequently implicated

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