UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights speaking at Responsible Business in Uncertain Times

The UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif's remarks during IHRB’s event: Responsible Business in Uncertain Times: Strengthening Corporate Leadership Amidst Widening Global Conflicts, hosted at the ICRC in Geneva on 9 October 2024.

Distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends,

We are at a critical juncture, a moment in time when our world is facing unprecedented challenges with an increasing number of protracted conflicts, at an all-time high, wreaking destruction, defying logic and serving to unravel and undermine multilateralism. We witness daily egregious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, with devastating impacts on millions of civilians, from Ukraine to Sudan, Myanmar, and Gaza, now Lebanon too - perpetuating cycles of violence, eroding trust in public institutions and in the international legal order.

In these crisis contexts, businesses are never neutral actors. Whether intended or not, their presence impacts conflict dynamics, and their operations can either fuel tensions or help ease them.

Conflicts are shaped by an intricate web of factors - social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental. Being part of that web, business activities could support peace. Instead, they too often infringe on the rights of those caught in the middle.

For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, companies are relentlessly pursuing the acquisition of rare and precious raw materials connected to armed groups whose violence continue to trigger mass displacement. The conflict in Sudan is driven by business interests of both local armed groups and foreign actors in the lucrative gold, agriculture, and livestock sectors, undermining peace efforts. In Myanmar, the army’s war is enabled by foreign businesses providing weapons, telecommunications and other services and resources. Finally, in several countries – the operations, products or services of tech companies have enabled the incitement to hatred, social divisions and violence, involving companies in a complex set of responsibilities and duties. 

Every business enterprise should be concerned by the risk of getting involved in human rights harm. Companies, including investors and the financial sector, bear responsibility in ensuring that their investments do not fuel conflicts or exacerbate human rights violations. Yet, many businesses lack a conflict-sensitive approach, failing to recognise and evaluate the risks they pose.

And here is the difficult part: there is no one-size-fits-all solution, no definitive answers for those businesses that are committed to avoiding human rights harms in conflict. But we do have a guiding framework that lays out what is expected by States and by business under international standards: the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

As guardian of the UNGPs, our Office has helped clarify how this authoritative framework should be understood. Just last year, we published a note unpacking what is expected under the UNGPs by businesses which operate in challenging contexts such as those involving conflict, authoritarian regimes, political turmoil or systematic violations of human rights.

One of the key expectations of all business enterprises is to conduct human rights due diligence to identify the risks of negative human rights impacts, and to take action to mitigate and address them. Human rights due diligence is inherently context-specific; it will vary in complexity with the size of the business enterprise, the risk of severe human rights impacts, and the nature and context of its operations.

In challenging environments, business enterprises are expected to implement human rights due diligence processes that sufficiently take account of the heightened risk. Human rights due diligence is the compass that can help each company devise its own solutions, to fully respect and uphold rights.

Businesses are expected to be aware of and respect international law. It is an ethical responsibility. Responsible leadership also implies avoiding litigation and reputational risks, and respecting legal obligations, increasingly enshrined in domestic and regional laws.

Companies should consult with legal experts in international humanitarian law to understand their obligations, especially when operating in regions experiencing armed conflict. We have seen positive examples, where in some countries, some companies have significantly scaled up their efforts and invested resources to enable a thorough human rights due diligence analysis, demonstrating openness to work with experts and actors on the ground, to address shared challenges. And they have placed the outcomes of this effort at the core of their corporate decisions.

Ultimately, business benefits from the predictability that comes with peace. And justice. From sound, stable, and independent institutions. Today, more than ever, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the multiple crises that threaten all of these, and therefore our collective future.

A growing commitment from investors and corporate actors to support and co-design effective, shared solutions to address the scale, duration, and complexity of today’s crises is encouraging. Our Office continues to call for sustained dialogue and strengthened collaboration between businesses, investors, humanitarian actors and international human rights law experts.

Thank you.