The due diligence expectations contained in the OECD Guidelines and United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) have always, since their inception in 2011, been intended to take a risk-based approach that includes the full “value chain” of business relationships. This includes “downstream” entities and business relationships as well as “upstream” relationships. Despite overwhelming evidence and clarity on this point, some are currently attempting to take discussions at the OECD and EU back a decade in order to restrict and limit business responsibility by disingenuously claiming that established due diligence standards were not intended to have a full value chain scope. This briefing paper explains why it is clear that the risk-based approach to due diligence expectations in the OECD Guidelines and UNGPs apply to the full value chain, including downstream business relationships, drawing on provisions from the OECD Guidelines and UNGPs themselves as well as various OECD due diligence guidance documents, statements by OECD National Contact Points in various countries, and clarifications by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the OECD Investment Committee.

Downstream due diligence: Setting the record straight - SOMO, 2022 DOWNLOAD

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

Abuse by the System: Survivors of Trafficking in Immigration Detention
News & Analysis

The Home Office routinely detains people who are subject to immigration control only to release them again back into the community, causing them significant harm in the process. This includes survivors of trafficking and slavery. Survivors are detai...Read More

TAGS: Europe
Trapped: The Belt and Road Initiative’s Chinese Workers
News & AnalysisPublications

The Belt Road Initiative (BRI), China’s ambitious transnational development program, is set to redefine globalization with “Chinese characteristics.” Since its inception, thousands of transportation, energy, information technology, and mining ...Read More

Built on repression: PVC building materials’ reliance on labor and environmental abuses in the Uyghur region
News & Analysis

Over the course of the last five years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government has embarked on a campaign of repression that nine governments have determined to be either “genocide” or “crimes against humanity.” The PRC has furthe...Read More

Leveraging innovation to fight trafficking in human beings: a comprehensive analysis of technology tools
News & AnalysisPublications

The publication takes stock of technology tools and initiatives developed to combat trafficking in human beings in its different forms in the OSCE area and beyond. It also examines the ways technology can be misused to facilitate trafficking in huma...Read More