should be held accountable, in accordance with the polluter pays principle
and intergenerational equity.75
3. The investor-owned Carbon Majors have also breached their
responsibilities to respect the rights of Filipino people and
communities by failing to prevent human rights impacts that are
directly linked to their operations, products, or services by its
business relationships.
As part of their corporate responsibility to respect human rights, the
Carbon Majors are required to exercise due diligence in their business
activities or relationships. Guiding Principle 17 explains that businesses
should “identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their
adverse human rights impacts” by carrying out human rights due diligence.76
The human rights due diligence process includes the following elements:
• Assessing actual and potential impacts of
business activities on human rights;
• Acting on the findings of this assessment,
including by integrating appropriate measures
to address impacts into company policies and
practices;
• Tracking how effective the measures taken are
in preventing or mitigating adverse human
rights impacts; and
• Communicating to the outside world about the
due diligence process and results.77
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75
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, Rio Declaration, Fifth Session, Apr. 25, 1997
at principle 16.
76
Id. at principle 17, page 31.
77
International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions and Danish Institute for
Human Rights, Business and Human Rights: A Guidebook for National Human Rights Institutions (2013),
at 40,
http://www.humanrights.dk/files/media/dokumenter/udgivelser/bhr_guidebook_for_nhris_2013_eng.pdf
(last access on Apr. 20, 2016)
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