High-profile incidents such as the Rana Plaza factory collapse, oil pollution in the Niger Delta, and child labour in cocoa supply chains, have highlighted these concerns. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), adopted by the United Nations in 2011, serve as the internationally recognised framework charting both state obligations and corporate responsibilities regarding human rights. The UNGPs rest on three pillars: the state duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect and the right to remedy for victims of corporate human rights abuses.
The approval of the UNGPs signifies a shift from the broader concept of corporate social responsibility toward more authoritative human rights guidelines and instruments. Although non-binding, the UNGPs have spurred a wave of efforts to regulate corporate conduct on human rights, alongside stronger accountability and remedy mechanisms. This trend is visible across Europe and beyond, particularly in the rise of mandatory human rights due diligence regulations, which require companies to identify, prevent, and mitigate their adverse impacts on human rights, with penalties for non-compliance. Since 2014, ongoing negotiations have also focused on establishing a legally binding international treaty on business and human rights, likely drawing on the principles of the UNGPs.
Despite these advancements, much remains to be accomplished at the local and regional level. Many of the developments described above focus on large multinational companies operating across borders and continents. While the UNGPs require all companies to respect human rights, regardless of size, sector or operational context, the responsibilities of small, medium and micro-level firms are often overlooked.
To shed light on regional approaches to business and human rights locally, researchers at QUB Law School and the NI Human Rights Commission recently launched the Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Index Report, supported by the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI). For the first time, the report provided an assessment of corporate implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the region. The report focused on 20 of the top businesses in Northern Ireland in 2023, and assessed these companies using a well-established methodology from the World Benchmarking Alliance.
Northern Ireland represents a unique case study to apply the UNGPs. There are a number of intersecting pieces of legislation that form the current approach to business and human rights as a whole in the UK. This includes, for example the 1998 Human Rights Act, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and some parts of the Companies Act 2006. The UK also became the first country to publish a National Action Plan on business and human rights in 2013, updated in 2016, though no further updates have been issued. Several calls have been made by various civil society and business actors for mandatory human rights due diligence legislation to be brought in the UK. In November 2023, Baroness Young introduced a Private Members’ Bill to the House of Lords which would have required all commercial organisations in the UK to undertake human rights and environmental due diligence. The Bill fell at the last parliament due to the general election. It remains to be seen whether this will be taken up again by the current Labour government.
The Northern Irish economy is currently defined by small, medium and micro enterprises to a greater extent than the rest of the UK and Ireland, with fewer capital-intensive employers. As colleagues at QUB Law School have noted, Northern Ireland’s small-scale enterprises are often contained within supply chains, subordinate to the global firms upon which the focus of business and human rights regulation typically lies. They are subjects, not initiators, of business and human rights policies and are likely to encounter these policies as a form of contractual governance through supply chain management. Given the weight of the public sector in the region, government departments in Northern Ireland are also subject to Public Procurement Note 05/21, which requires human rights considerations to be incorporated in procurement processes. Brexit has also affected Northern Ireland’s regulatory landscape, as it remains within the EU’s single market, meaning certain EU laws pertaining to corporate responsibility on human rights continue to apply locally, unlike in the rest of the UK.
Findings from the 2024 Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Index reveal that none of the region’s top companies demonstrate full compliance with the basic expectations outlined in the UNGPs. Moreover, significant disparities exist within the sample, particularly between multinational companies with subsidiaries in Northern Ireland and non-subsidiary firms indigenous to the region. Within the top companies, human rights due diligence, the ‘cornerstone of the UNGPs’, has not been implemented to the fullest extent possible. Nonetheless, there are indications that some companies are increasingly recognising their corporate responsibility to respect human rights. One quarter of companies explicitly committed to the UNGPs or the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises. Most companies also had in place a grievance mechanism for workers, though commitment and access to remedy remain low across the board.
The report offers a robust evidence base on how companies in Northern Ireland understand and implement human rights policies and practices across their operations. It highlights gaps in compliance, identifies areas where targeted support is required, and provides clear guidance for policymakers and regulators. Moving forward, the focus should be on ensuring that Northern Ireland companies fully align with the UNGPs by embedding locally tailored approaches to business and human rights. This will require not only appropriate support and guidance for businesses on their responsibility to respect human rights but also a stronger regulatory environment both regionally and nationally.
