Session organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Interpretation in English and Spanish provided by DOCIP.Webcast of the session:Meeting linkMeeting number: 840 079 851
Password: rBEJX7Zh
Background Access to effective remedy is a core component of the
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). While judicial mechanisms are “at the core of ensuring access to remedy”, national human rights institutions (NHRIs), as a key State-based non-judicial grievance mechanism, have “an essential role in complementing and supplementing judicial mechanisms”. This is in line also with the aspirations expressed in the
Edinburgh Declaration, which emphasised the role that NHRIs can play in facilitating access to remedy both directly (e.g., by handling complaints concerning business-related human rights abuses) and indirectly (e.g., by raising awareness, conducting public inquiries, building capacity, assisting affected rights holders, and recommending legal reforms). In addition, NHRIs can act as important bridge between rightsholders and the State, including through supporting human rights defenders and by building partnerships to promote access to remedy.
The Human Rights Council has recognized “the important role of national human rights institutions in supporting activities to improve accountability and access to remedy” (
A/HRC/38/L.13). It requested the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights “to analyse further the role of national human rights institutions in facilitating access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses, and to convene a two-day global consultation on these issues, open to all stakeholders, and to inform the Council by its forty-fourth session” (
A/HRC/38/L.18).
This session builds on the global consultation on the role of NHRIs in facilitating access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses that the Working Group organised in October 2019. The session seeks to showcase various ways in which NHRIs have been trying to facilitate access to remedy and the tools they have employed to overcome numerous challenges faced in this process. It will also consider the reforms required to strengthen the role of NHRIs in facilitating access to effective remedy for business-related human rights abuses.
ObjectivesThis session seeks to:
- showcase selected case studies of how NHRIs are able to facilitate access to remedy in diverse ways (both directly and indirectly) for business-related human rights abuses;
- highlight the challenges and limitations that NHRIs often face in facilitating access to remedy and discuss effective strategies for overcoming such challenges and limitations; and
- share good practices developed and innovative measures taken by NHRIs in facilitating access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses.
FormatAfter brief remarks by the moderator, selected NHRIs will be invited to share their experiences (e.g., challenges faced, limitations experienced, and innovative measures taken) of facilitating access to remedy in business-related human rights abuses. This will be followed by an open discussion with participants from the floor.
