Business, Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals

Forging a Coherent Vision and Strategy

This paper makes the case for the Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC) to take a lead in changing the current outdated discourse on business and social development, by recognising and harnessing this unique potential of the UNGPs. The paper concludes that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present an opportunity not just to update our vision of the role of business in sustainable development, but to change it fundamentally. There is no more pressing or more powerful way for business to accelerate social development than by driving respect for human rights across their value chains. The proposition that all companies not only can contribute at scale to development through these networks of business relationships, but that they have a responsibility to do so, is the quiet revolution that sits at the heart of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The paper closes with a set of specific recommendations about how to embed this vision at the heart of how business gets done.

Studies / Research / Report
Business and Sustainable Development Commission
Shift
44 pages
English
Human Rights Policy
Due Diligence
Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR]
Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]
Sustainability
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights [UNGPs]