The UNGPs consist of 31 principles setting out the duties and responsibilities of governments and business enterprises to prevent and address adverse impacts on people resulting from business activities.
The 264-page report, commissioned by the UN, marks ten years since the adoption of the UNGPs in 2011. It examines how judicial and quasi-judicial bodies in more than 50 jurisdictions have used and referred to the UNGPs in reaching their decisions.
It identifies regional and international trends and predicts how the use of the UNGPs might evolve in future. While there were few direct references to the UNGPs in judicial and quasi-judicial decisions, the researchers thought this was likely to change. Some recent legislation, such as the EU Taxonomy Regulation of March 2021, makes explicit reference to the UNGPs, while other legislation, such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015, refers to them as part of their rationale.
The researchers also report an increasing number of complaints in which the UNGPs have been cited by the parties, including in the English, US and Canadian courts.
Other observations include that the UNGPs are increasingly being incorporated into investment treaties and may come to play a more important role in international arbitration. One noticeable trend is towards dedicated business and human rights arbitration instruments and procedures, for example, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a first of its kind agreement between retailers and trade unions following the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse. This Accord covers more than 1,600 factories and two million workers in Bangladesh and is, the report notes, ‘the first example of an arbitration procedure being integrated into an international framework to resolve business and human rights disputes’.
