Human Rights Due Diligence in support of Decent Work (HRDD4DW)

Background

Over the last decade, enhancing business respect for human rights and achieving decent work in supply chains have been at the centre of numerous public and private initiatives to achieve more inclusive growth and sustainable development. Human rights due diligence, the process through which companies can identify, prevent and mitigate their actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights and account for how they address such impacts, has become firmly embedded as a defining element of responsible business conduct, recommended by the three main international instruments on responsible business conduct (RBC), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.

Labour rights are a critical component of any human rights due diligence process. The objective of the ILO in partnering with the EC on the HRDD4DW project is to enable ILO constituents – governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations - to harness the positive potential of mandatory human rights due diligence initiatives to advance decent work.

Project outcomes

The overall objective of the HRDD4DW project is to ensure that effective and inclusive human rights due diligence policies and processes support the realization of labour rights and the advancement of decent work.

At the end of the project, ILO constituents will have increased knowledge, capacity and engagement on the labour dimension of HRDD in alignment with principles of international labour standards and national labour law. The outputs to achieve this outcome are as follows:

1) Enhanced availability and user-friendliness of information from various ILO sources support ILO Member States and effective HRDD policies and processes.

2) Strengthened capacity of ILO tripartite constituents on the labour dimension of HRDD for more effective and inclusive HRDD processes.

Implementation and management

HRDD4DW focuses on social dialogue with constituents and meaningful consultation with potentially affected stakeholders as essential components of human rights due diligence. This approach will guide the ILO in the development of global resources, tools and training that can be further tailored to and applied as part of other interventions, including those funded by the EU, at the regional, country, and sectoral levels.

At the end of the programme, the HRDD4DW project will have helped communicate key issues at the intersection of international labour standards and human rights due diligence, provided tools that help lay the groundwork for effective and meaningful consultation, expanded data available for evidence-based decision-making, and strengthened engagement of employers’ and workers’ organizations, including in specific sectors.

The project is managed by the Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct Unit in ILO’s HQ in Geneva, and is implemented in close collaboration with the Sectoral Policies Department (SECTOR) and the Better Work Programme. It also contributes to the implementation of the ILO strategy on decent work in supply chains.