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What are the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights? Please explain their history, content and the underlying governance idea.

Question

What are the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights? Please explain their history, content and the underlying governance idea.

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Solution

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are a set of guidelines for states and companies to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. They were proposed by UN Special Representative on business & human rights, John Ruggie, and endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011.

The history of these principles dates back to 2005 when the UN Commission on Human Rights felt the need to address the impact of corporate activities on human rights. John Ruggie was appointed to identify and clarify standards of corporate responsibility and accountability regarding human rights. After six years of research, consultations and pilot testing, Ruggie presented the Guiding Principles to the Human Rights Council.

The Guiding Principles are based on three pillars:

  1. The state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including businesses, through appropriate policies, regulation, and adjudication.
  2. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which means to avoid infringing on the rights of others and to address adverse impacts with which they are involved.
  3. The need for greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial.

The underlying governance idea is that both states and businesses have roles in addressing the adverse impacts of business-related activities on human rights. States must take steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuse through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication. Businesses, on the other hand, must respect human rights by avoiding infringing on the rights of others and addressing adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. They must also provide for or cooperate in remediation when they have caused or contributed to adverse impacts.

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Which group was created in the early 1990s to oversee and manage activities concerning all United Nations’ agencies that worked on human rights issues.Question 2Select one:a.The Human Rights Committeeb.The United Nations Economic and Social Councilc.The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rightsd.The Commission on Human Rights

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