Overview
The next decade of business and human rights: increasing the pace and scale of action to implement the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Since its creation in 2011, the Annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights has brought together thousands of participants from governments, international organizations, business, trade unions, civil society, communities, lawyers and academia from around the world. Centred on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) — the global framework for States and businesses to prevent and address business-related impacts on human rights — the Forum has provided a unique multi-stakeholder platform for discussing trends and challenges in implementing the UNGPs and realizing a more sustainable global economy.
As the UNGPs turned 10 in June 2021, the convergence of the COVID-19 and climate crises amid a number of other major global challenges underlined why the need to bridge the gaps between economic actors and respect for people and the planet is more pressing than ever. Set against this background, with the UNGPs as the central reference point for efforts toward bridging these gaps, the 10th Annual UN Forum looks ahead to the next decade, engaging relevant actors in discussion on what it will take to increase the pace of UNGPs implementation toward 2030.
The 10th Forum provides a timely opportunity to look ahead and inspire a renewed push for scaled-up global implementation of the UNGPs by States and businesses in the decade toward 2030. Two outputs by the Working Group developed at the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the UNGPs provide a key reference for discussions at the 2021 Forum:
- The Working Group’s evaluation of the first decade of UNGPs implementation, presented in its “UNGPs 10+ stocktaking” report to the Human Rights Council in June 2021 and accompanied by a stocktaking on implementation by institutional investors.
- The Working Group’s “roadmap for the next decade”, setting out benchmarks and action areas for States, businesses and other stakeholders to address existing gaps and seize current opportunities identified by the UNGPs 10+ stocktaking. The “roadmap” is forthcoming in November 2021.
Due to the ongoing worldwide challenges the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose, the 10th Annual UN Forum will take place virtually (on the Zoom platform) from 29 November to 1 December 2021.
The Forum was established by the UN Human Rights Council and is guided and chaired by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. It is organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).