“Monitoring the compliance of all suppliers with the brands’ human rights policies, therefore, becomes a major challenge for all the lead firms,” Chi said. Sean O’Connell, human rights and innovation officer, UNDP Vietnam, said the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), adopted unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, provided the first global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity and would continue to provide the internationally accepted framework for enhancing standards and practices regarding business and human rights. The UNGPs contain 31 principles encompassing three pillars: the State’s duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses. A growing number of multinational corporations had also incorporated the UNGPs in their human rights policies and framework, he said. Chi said enterprises should integrate the human rights policy into their core business and frequently review and improve grievance handling mechanisms.
