Exploring an integrated approach to business, human rights and the 2030 Agenda

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world’s leaders indicated a global pathway for transformative change in which business has a key role to play. Indeed, many of the SDGs and targets explicitly support and or require participation and change by business to be fully realised. A range of actors, including UN bodies, civil society organisations and parts of the business community have underlined the critical importance of placing implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights at the centre of action by business in support of the 2030 Agenda.

A call for coherent implementation

Despite the conceptual clarity, current practice by business and states is not always coherent and integrated. Some businesses are still addressing sustainable development and human rights in silos. Others focus on activities that can positively contribute to achieving certain sustainable development goals while overlooking the adverse human rights impacts of their business activities. At the state level, processes for implementing the 2030 Agenda are often not connected to efforts to address business-related human rights abuses and vice versa.

This discussion paper explores the connections between responsible business conduct and the 2030 Agenda and reiterates that the implementation of the UNGPs can be the single most important contribution by business to the realisation of the SDGs. It further explores what the 2030 Agenda and the UNGPs bring to each other and makes the following recommendations.

Recommendations for business

• Ensure internal communication, coordination and oversight across SDG and human rights or responsible business efforts, including in corporate reporting
• Identify salient issues holistically, including by taking all human rights into consideration, engaging with potentially affected rightsholders, and being informed by the 2030 Agenda in the scope of analysis
• Take action to identify the root causes associated with human rights challenges in the value chain and take both operational and systemic action to address them including through partnerships and use of leverage
• Use human rights due diligence to guide and drive activities designed to ‘do good’

Recommendations for states

• Undertake integrated national action planning to ensure policy coherence between measures to implement UNGPs and the 2030 Agenda
• Use the 2030 Agenda Follow-Up and Review process to strengthen efforts in the area of business and human rights
• Encourage corporate due diligence and reporting to deliver on the SDGs
• Adopt a human rights-based approach to measures aiming at implementing the 2030 Agenda including financing for development

Inspiration to practitioners

With this discussion paper, the Institute hopes to be of inspiration to practitioners working with business, human rights and the 2030 Agenda and to better equip them to implement the frameworks in a practical and mutually reinforcing manner. The paper contributes to unpacking how business and states can work jointly with the 2030 Agenda and the UNGPs in practice, and thereby realise the truly transformative potential of business respect for human rights.

Database to inspire companies

The paper supplements previous work by the Institute in this area, including the database biz.sdg.humanrights.dk, which provides almost 100 real examples by businesses on how to avoid and address salient human rights issues, while contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.