Business Relationships Learning Dialogue: implementing the corporate responsibility to respect beyond the supply chain

The Fourth UN Forum on Business and Human Rights took place in Geneva from 16 to 18 November 2015.  It brought together over 2,300 participants from 130 countries. 

IHRB staff and partners took part in a range of sessions. In this discussion, the dialogue focused on the implementation of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights in diverse business relationships beyond the supply chain. Key messages from the session included:

• Approaches are evolving…to ‘collaboration and partnership’ when dealing with human rights and business partners
• Companies are including respect for human rights in contracts with business partners and seeing it as a source of leverage
• There are innovative examples of companies working collectively within their industry groups…to increase leverage and effect change in the practices of business partners
• There is a clear need for capacity building…within…companies
• Companies are using grievance mechanisms to address low-level grievances before they escalate­ – but more attention is needed.

Note: IHRB's original Storify summary of this event is no longer available as the Storify platform is no longer functional.