respect human rights is not optional—it arises from a global standard of
expected conduct that is often reflected in national laws and regulations.59
The Guiding Principles set forth a number of foundational and operational
principles concerning the corporate responsibility to respect human rights.
Specifically, foundational Principles 11 and 12 are relevant to the Carbon
Majors and the impacts of their global operations:
Foundational Principle 11: Business enterprises
should respect human rights. This means that they
should avoid infringing on the human rights of
others and should address adverse human rights
impacts with which they are involved; and
Foundational Principle 12: The responsibility of
business enterprises to respect human rights refers
to internationally recognized human rights.60
These Principles recognize that the corporate responsibility to respect
human rights applies to virtually the entire spectrum of internationally
recognized human rights, including those expressed in the “Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the main instruments through which it has
been codified: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
coupled with the principles concerning fundamental rights in the eight ILO
core conventions as set out in the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work.”61
As discussed in the Interpretive Guide, all businesses must not only
comply with national laws and regulations incorporating international
human rights standards, but also with a global standard of conduct:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
58
International Bar Association Climate Change and Human Rights Task Force Report, Achieving Justice
and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption, July 2014, at 147-153,
http://www.ibanet.org/PresidentialTaskForceCCJHR2014 (accessed on Apr. 20, 2016).
59
Guiding Principles, supra note 24, at principle 11 at 13. See Sharan Burrow, Sharan Burrow’s Speech to
the 2014 United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, Dec. 2, 2014, http://www.ituccsi.org/sharan-burrow-s-speech-to-the-2014?lang=en (last accessed on June 16, 2015).
60
Guiding Principles, supra note 24, at principles 11-12 at 13-14.
61
Id. at 14.
!
!
!
!
!
30
!
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents