Pillar Three of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the“UNGPs”)provides that rightsholders should have access to remedie sfor human rights infringements arising from business activities. (UNGP25-31) Companies are required to establish or participate in these mechanisms. (UNGP 29) While governments have a role in access to remedy, so too do non-government mechanisms. Among these are complaint systems operated by multistakeholder initiatives (“MSIs,”See, e.g. UNGP 30). Research to date has not come close to answering the fundamental question of whether these complaint mechanisms provide effective remedies to rightsholders. If MSI grievance mechanisms do work, they should be multiplied and empowered. They could have an essential role in fulfilling Pillar Three. If they may work, or work sometimes and not others, then they should be improved or used only in situations in which they function adequately. If they do not and cannot work, efforts should go elsewhere, and claims of their effectiveness should not create a false impression of their importance. This Report presents an initial overview of our research into MSI grievance mechanisms. Its primary goal is to describe what we did and share what we found. This Report is not our detailed analysis of the data or an account of all our findings. That will come over time in a variety of forms: peer-reviewed academic publications, presentations, and additional NomoGaia reports. We welcome others to analyze our data and reach additional conclusions. We could not resist putting some, generally high-level, analysis in this Report. But the data are rich enough to support multiple levels of review, commentary, and analysis, and to lead to further research. This Report is a first step.

Initial Report on Research into the Effectiveness of MultiStakeholder Initiatives’ Human Rights Complaint Mechanisms

Resource Key: Y5SLP3W9

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Author:

  • NomoGaia

Creators Name: {mb_resource_zotero_creatorsname}

Place: Denver, Colorado

Institution: NomoGaia

Date: 2022

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Pillar Three of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the“UNGPs”)provides that rightsholders should have access to remedie sfor human rights infringements arising from business activities. (UNGP25-31) Companies are required to establish or participate in these mechanisms. (UNGP 29) While governments have a role in access to remedy, so too do non-government mechanisms. Among these are complaint systems operated by multistakeholder initiatives (“MSIs,”See, e.g. UNGP 30). Research to date has not come close to answering the fundamental question of whether these complaint mechanisms provide effective remedies to rightsholders. If MSI grievance mechanisms do work, they should be multiplied and empowered. They could have an essential role in fulfilling Pillar Three. If they may work, or work sometimes and not others, then they should be improved or used only in situations in which they function adequately. If they do not and cannot work, efforts should go elsewhere, and claims of their effectiveness should not create a false impression of their importance. This Report presents an initial overview of our research into MSI grievance mechanisms. Its primary goal is to describe what we did and share what we found. This Report is not our detailed analysis of the data or an account of all our findings. That will come over time in a variety of forms: peer-reviewed academic publications, presentations, and additional NomoGaia reports. We welcome others to analyze our data and reach additional conclusions. We could not resist putting some, generally high-level, analysis in this Report. But the data are rich enough to support multiple levels of review, commentary, and analysis, and to lead to further research. This Report is a first step.

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