Report: UN Guiding Principles at 10 - Taking stock of the first decade

Summary

In the present report, the Working Group takes stock of the first decade of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (UNGPs). The report notes that the UNGPs have provided a ground-breaking common platform for action, but also that the pace of implementation by States and businesses needs to urgently increase over the next decade to realize the vision of responsible business that contributes to a sustainable future for all.

Watch video statements from Government and UN leaders to mark the 10th anniversary of the UNGPs.

Related documents

• Reader-friendly version of the UNGPs 10+ stocktaking (English)
• Executive summary (English)
• Addendum report: Taking stock of UNGPs implementation by institutional investors (English)
• Executive summary of the institutional investors report (English)
• General call for input (closed): English | French | Spanish
• Call for Governments inputs (closed): English | French | Spanish
• UNGPs 10+ related events and consultation summary notes
• UNGPs 10+ project page

Methodology

During 2020-21, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has been undertaking a project to assess the first ten years of implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and chart a course for action in the decade ahead.

To help inform the UNGPs 10+ project, the Working Group carried out wide-ranging stakeholder consultations and invited interested parties to provide written inputs. These consultations and written submissions provided valuable stakeholder analysis, supporting the Working Group’s stocktaking of progress and challenges to date and recommendations for how to increase the pace of implementation toward 2030.

The Working Group’s stocktaking was presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2021, during the anniversary month of the UNGPs. The “roadmap for the next decade” of implementation will be launched in October 2021.

Solicited inputs and thematic issue papers

All submissions are posted as received.

• The Impact of the UNGPs on Courts and Judicial Mechanisms – Report by Debevoise and Plimpton
• UN Special Procedures “Communications” involving business: data and trends 2011-2020 (Research supported by DLA Piper)
• Gender dimensions of business and human rights – Summary report of consultation in support of UNGPs10+
• The UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples - Progress achieved, the implementation gap and challenges for the next decade”. Report by International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and Indigenous Peoples Rights International
• World Benchmarking Alliance – Key findings from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark
• Stock exchange guidance on human rights disclosure: An analysis of human rights references in stock exchange ESG disclosure guidance (Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative)
• The linkages between international labour standards, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights (ILO and UN Working Group)
• S&P Global – Uptake of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: trends among companies in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Stakeholder inputs to UNGPs 10+ / Next Decade BHR project

All submissions are posted as received.

• List of questions
• Compilation of responses to UNGPs 10+ "Have your say" survey

States and inter-governmental organizations

• Argentina
• Canada
• Colombia
• Denmark
• EU
• Finland
• France
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Mauritius
• Philippines
• Poland
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• United States of America

UN system

• UNDP
• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

National human rights institutions

• Americas Network of National Human Rights Institutions
• Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
• Eastern-Southern Africa National Human Rights Institutions Business and Human Rights Peer Learning Initiative
• European Network of National Human Rights Institutions
• Danish Institute for Human Rights
• Ombudsman Office of El Salvador
• South African Human Rights Commission

Indigenous peoples’ networks

• Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus at the 2020 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights:
• English
• Español
• Français
• Russian
• Portuguese
• International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and Indigenous Peoples Rights International

Trade unions

• Joint submission by: Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), UNI Global Union
• Annex I
• Annex II
• Joint submission by: Norwegian Union for General and Municipal Employees (NUMGE) and Norwegian People’s Aid

Business organizations

• Compendium of input from amfori, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Council of Mining Metals (ICMM), International Organisation of Employers (IOE), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), United States Council for International Business (USCIB)
• Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
• IPIECA
• International Organisation of Employers (IOE) report “Achievements, challenges, and the way forward in the uptake and implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”
• Global Compact Local Network Argentina
• McDonald’s

Civil society organizations

• African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA)
• BankTrack
• European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ)
• International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)
• Mind the Gap Consortium (Al-Haq, Conectas, ECCJ, Inkrispena, PODER and SOMO)
• Minority Rights Group International and Lex Justi
• Oxfam

Academics, professional associations and other not-for-profit organizations

• American Bar Association
• Danish Institute for Human Rights, Global Reporting Initiative and Centro Vincular
• Day
• Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association – Latin America
• Global Reporting Initiative
• Peking University – Business and Human Rights Class
• Constantijn van Aartsen, Maastricht University
• Vance Center for International Justice, a non-profit program of the New York City Bar Association

Summaries of relevant materials submitted by stakeholders

• Australian Red Cross and RMIT University
• Buenos Aires Autonomous City Ombudsman and the Latin American and Caribbean news portal (NODAL)
• Chatham House
• Clean Clothes Campaign
• Econsense
• Global Compact Local Network Spain
• ICTI Ethical Toy Programme
• Norwegian Peoples Aid
• Peace Brigades International UK
• Responsible Mining Foundation
• Sustentia