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.
Identifying particularly vulnerable groups of children and their specific needs is essential for the elimination of child labour. Article 7 of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 – th...Read More
Internet and communication technology (ICT) has led to the emergence and rapid expansion of technology-facilitated trafficking in human beings (THB). The misuse of technology has become central to the business model of human traffickers and is prese...Read More
This Modern Slavery PEC Policy Brief is the third in a series of Policy Briefs that assess the evidence base on the effectiveness of different regulatory interventions to address modern slavery in global supply chains, a key research priority for th...Read More
The global economy is becoming increasingly reliant upon rare earth minerals, the ores of 17 metallic elements that are a key part of renewable energy solutions to climate change, enabling us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Two of these ...Read More
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