11th UN Forum on business and human rights

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(Versión en español adjunta)

Interpretation available in English, French and Spanish

Session organized by the UN Working Group on business and human rights

Brief description of the session:
This session will consider access to remedies for victims of human rights impacts of business activities in the past few years. Much of the discussion on access to remedies has, understandably, focused on access to judicial and institutional remedies. This session will aim to consider some other remedies which have recently been sought.
The context for this discussion is the report by the Working Group on Access to Remedies, that remedies should be remedies to the victims and not only sanctions against businesses which do not benefit victims. It is also within the context of rights-holders being at the centre of access to remedies.

Key objectives of the session:

• Set out some of the recent approaches to access to remedies by rights-holders in line with the "all roads to remedy" approach to realising effective remedies identified in the Working Group’s report (e.g. access to effective remedy taken as an all-pervasive lens; individual and collective work of diverse actors towards the common goal of providing access to effective remedies; and the realisation of remedies in diverse settings);
• Compare these approaches to other forms of access to remedies in terms of the benefits to rights-holders, and
• Offer insights to all stakeholders on methods by which rights-holders may access remedies.

Key discussion questions:

• What are new approaches to access remedies for victims; and 
• What factors should all stakeholders consider when remediating rights-holders for adverse human rights impacts of business activities.

Additional background documents (pdf format) or relevant links:

• Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises:  "Access to effective remedies under the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework", A/72/162, 2017. 
• Role of national human rights institutions in facilitating access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses – Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, A/HRC/47/39/Add.3, 2021.

Interpretation provided in English, French and Spanish

Session organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Brief description of the session
This session will focus on the importance of meaningful engagement with rights holders in the development and operation of non-judicial remedial systems. Taking the Fair Food Program (FFP) as a case study, the session will explore the role of rights holders in the development of the FFP, the FFP’s model for addressing accountability and remedy, how the model has influenced developments in other sectors and countries, and how rights holders have been instrumental in this expansion. Panelists will discuss the benefits of this approach for rights holders and companies, as well as how to replicate this approach in other contexts.

Key objectives of the session

• Enhance rights holders´ ability to engage in the design and development of remedial mechanisms.
  
• Share good practices regarding the design of non-State-based grievance mechanisms.
• Explore the benefits of worker-driven grievance mechanisms, including for companies.
• Discuss how worker-driven models have been and can be adopted in different sectors and contexts.

Background to the discussion
Since 2014, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has led the Accountability and Remedy Project (ARP) to strengthen implementation of the "Access to Remedy" pillar of the UNGPs. Through its work on non-State-based grievance mechanisms (ARP III), OHCHR found that such remedial systems tend to be most effective when those who will ultimately be using those systems have been meaningfully involved in the development of them. Thus, OHCHR has recommended that those developing and operating such mechanisms should give much greater emphasis to the needs, expectations and perspectives of the people for whose use these mechanisms are intended. Further, OHCHR has called for business enterprises to engage proactively with those seeking to develop and implement worker-driven grievance mechanisms.
Of the worker-driven models currently in existence, the Fair Food Program is one of the most long-standing, and is also widely regarded as being one of the most advanced. That program was built upon farmworker community organizing led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who pioneered a worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains. Over the past several years, this so-called Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm has begun being replicated in other countries and contexts. This session will examine the drivers behind the success of the FFP and the latest global developments in their remedial model.

Additional background documents

• Accountability and Remedy Project
• ARP III report/guidance and explanatory addendum
• Summary of ARP III guidance on meeting the effectiveness criteria
• Fair Food Program and Fair Food Standards Council
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers

•  Worker-driven Social Responsibility Network
• Antonella Angelini & Shauna Curphey, The Overlooked Advantages of the Independent Monitoring and Complaint Investigation System in the Worker-driven Social Responsibility Model in US Agriculture, 2022 Business and Human Rights Journal, 1-6.