Human Rights at Sea has issued a new publication focused on the implementation of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business (UNGPs) and Human Rights in the maritime environment. The report alludes to the benefits of adopting the UNGPs in respect to their integration into business documents such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies, reporting and assurance strategies and associated policies.
The UNGPs are the authoritative global reference point on business and human rights. They are based on and implement the three pillars of the UN ”Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework that recognises the complementary but distinct roles of States and business in protecting and respecting human rights.
How the UNGPs should be applied
The second pillar of the UNGPs, namely the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Respect human rights directly applies to all business enterprises operating within the maritime environment.
Although a maritime business enterprise may have an established and integrated CSR, reporting and assurance strategy and policies, the UNGPs are clear that such organisations should not only respect internationally recognised human rights, but that they should ‘know and show’ this.
This means that an integrated CSR, reporting and assurance strategy and policy should be specifically and explicitly tailored to ensure that there is a published policy commitment to human rights together with a clear commitment to embed and implement the UNGPs.
CGS is defined by the European Union as ”the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society. CSR should be company led”. There is also an expectation that where a business enterprise fails to respect human rights in one part of their operations or supply chain, the failures cannot be ‘offset’ by philanthropic or other contributions for promoting human rights elsewhere.
Many business enterprises have CSR policies in place, however, not all explicitly address human rights. Such a selective stance by business enterprises operating throughout the maritime environment and within all associated supply chains needs to change in order to develop a common standard and approach to business and human rights.
Learn more by reading HRAS issues new publication on UN principles on human rights
Source: HRAS
