The Business and Human Rights field is evolving quickly.
If you are interested in the topic from an academic viewpoint, the debate about a business and human rights binding treaty will interest you. If you are more interested in the practical application of human rights in the business world, outcomes of litigation and new case studies, then the following will be more relevant to you:
The Institute for Business and Human Rights has released their list of 2015 Business and human rights priorities again, each of which offers a good entry point into the topic.
Alternatively, you can read the list of priorities here with some extra explanations. Now you obtained a quick overview of priorities in business and human rights, here is an introductory resource list for those of you who want to dig deeper into the topic:
1. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has become the world’s leading independent resource on the subject. This website is updated hourly with news and reports about companies’ human rights impacts worldwide – positive and negative. The website covers over 6000 companies and more than 180 countries. Topics include discrimination, environment, poverty & development, labour, access to medicines, health & safety, security, trade etc.
2. Annual Corporate Accountability Briefing 2015 published by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre to assist all those following corporate legal accountability issues. The briefing provides an overview of corporate legal accountability for human rights, summarising trends and developments in this field. It is an opportunity to take a step back and assess corporate legal accountability from a global perspective. The goal is to help a wide audience understand what is happening in different parts of the world.
3. Frequently Asked Questions about the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights published by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2014 You heard about the Guiding Principles and now want to know what they are about, this is the text for you. Rather than just reading the Principles themselves, here you find the necessary context.
4. Investing the Rights Way: A Guide for Investors on Business and Human Rights, published by The Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) in collaboration with Calvert Investments and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility ,March 2013. Money makes the world go around. Many say that if you approach human rights from an financial perspective all other things follow. Start with this text to find out yourself how much influence finance has in steering the agenda.
There are a few more pieces on this blog about the role of national human rights institutions in business and human rights and a basic introduction.
Happy researching!
