Key principles for human rights impact assessment of digital business activities

The fast pace of innovation and technological development in the digital sphere has led to a new generation of human rights challenges. Technology and non-tech companies active in the digital ecosystem that seek to improve their business conduct are confronted with a lack of guidance, tools and accumulated knowledge to refer to when assessing and addressing the human rights impacts of their digital activities.   

When looking at digital projects, products and services, there are several impact assessment methodologies that can be considered in conjunction with HRIA. New requirements outlined in the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and proposed EU Artificial Intelligence Act will also require actors to assess fundamental rights risks of the product, service and/or application. Within the responsible business conduct policy field, recent policy developments are also relevant to human rights impacts of digital technologies. This includes the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDD).  

In order to be able to compare HRIA with other forms of impact assessments we need to clarify what defines HRIA. Despite the diversity in current HRIA approaches, there are a number of elements that recur in HRIA literature, guidance and practice as critical aspects to consider. These ‘key criteria’ relate to both the process and content of HRIA, and reflect what is unique an impact assessment focusing on the risk to people. These criteria also emphasize aspects which may to a lesser or greater degree be reflected in other impact assessment methodologies, but which arguably warrant heightened attention from a human rights perspective. These aspects can be grouped into five key criteria relating to process and five key criteria relating to content. The criteria are taken from the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) guidance on human rights impact assessment of digital business activities, which was originally published in 2020 to provide guidance on HRIA of digital project product and services. The guidance was developed in close cooperation and dialogue with academia, civil society, and tech companies.