Phase 4: Impact mitigation and management

The impact mitigation and management phase focuses on creating a detailed plan for addressing each identified human rights impact.
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VIDEO: Overview of the impact mitigation and management phase.

In the impact mitigation and management phase, the business, HRIA team, and stakeholders come together to create a plan for preventing and addressing human rights impacts. All human rights impacts need to be addressed, with the most severe impacts taking priority. Rights-holders should be meaningfully involved in planning, enacting and monitoring impact management efforts.

Guidance

Planning for effective impact management should be an integral part of the HRIA process. Allocating time and resources for developing a detailed impact management plan at the outset of the HRIA can be very helpful for facilitating this.

In determining what actions should be taken to address identified impacts, mitigation plans should focus primarily on avoiding and reducing negative human rights impacts. Businesses should also exercise leverage to address impacts that involve third parties such as government actors, other operators in the area and contractors in the supply chain. As human rights impacts relate to a variety of business functions, it is also useful to consider how different business units might be involved in human rights impact management.

Once the adverse human rights impacts have been identified and an impact management plan has been created, it is important to follow up on whether the actions to address the identified impacts are implemented and that they effectively address the impacts.

Access to remedy is a key component of impact mitigation and management. The role of operational-level grievance mechanisms in impact management, both as a resource to identify impacts as well as a means to address any grievances associated with the HRIA process itself, should be considered.

Stakeholder engagement in Phase 4

In Phase 4, stakeholders should be involved in designing and implementing actions that effectively prevent, mitigate and remediate adverse impacts. They should also be involved in monitoring their implementation, potentially through participatory monitoring. This may require capacity building.

Section 1.1 of the Impact Mitigation and Management Practioners Supplement provides more information on stakeholder engagement and capacity building for effective impact management.

See the Stakeholder Engagement section for more information on engaging with rights-holders.

Practitioner Supplement

The Phase 4 Supplement:

  • information on how to empower communities to participate in impact management. The supplement also includes key questions on monitoring. Finally, the supplement describes example HRIA findings and mitigation strategies

VIDEO: Phase 4 case study – Source International. Participatory monitoring.
The case studies demonstrate practical experiences and dilemmas from HRIA practitioners and companies that have used this toolbox.

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Disclaimer: The case studies are from external organisations and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DIHR. The DIHR is an independent, national human rights institution, established under the Paris Principles. Parties relying on any information contained within the case studies do so at their own discretion.