Viewpoints

June 2022 | Viewpoints

To address inequality, companies should put human rights at the core of how they do business

Shift's Caroline Rees discusses how companies can stop chasing the last issue in the latest news cycle and start ensuring systematically that they are part of the solution to inequality.

This piece was originally published by the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality According to the 2022 World Inequality Report, the richest 10% of the global population takes 52% of global income and owns 76% of all wealth, while the poorest half of the population earns just 8.5% of global income and 2% of wealth. There are […]

March 2022 | Viewpoints

An interview with Professor Erika George

evolution that she has seen across the business and human rights movement over the years, the relevance of investors as key agents of change, her interest in the recognition of the human right to a clean and healthy environment, and considerations on how companies can revisit the role they are playing to tackle the structural barriers that lead to discrimination on the basis of race.

Professor Erika George is the Director of the Tanner Humanities Center and a Professor of Law at the University of Utah. She joined Shift’s Board of Trustees in February 2022. In this conversation with Shift’s Communications Lead, Daniel Berezowsky, Professor George speaks about the evolution that she has seen across the business and human rights […]

November 2021 | Viewpoints

Shift President Remarks at John Ruggie Memorial Service

Caroline Rees reflects on the life and profound impact of John Ruggie at the 2021 Boston memorial service.

Boston, MA | These remarks were delivered by Caroline Rees at the memorial service held in honor of John Ruggie on November 20, 2021 at Memorial Church, Harvard University. The Ruggie Principles, with a small ‘p’ The Ruggie Principles. That’s the name by which so many people around the world refer to the UN Guiding Principles […]

March 2021 | Viewpoints

No Need to Reinvent Wheels: Drafting Meaningful Human Rights Due Diligence through Model Suggested Supply Chain Contract Clauses

Shift’s General Counsel, John Sherman III explains how the Model Contract Clauses to Protect Workers in International Supply Chains, recently updated by the ABA, can help companies operationalize human rights due diligence in supply chain contracts.

The American Bar Association (ABA) is the largest voluntary association of lawyers and law students in the U.S. and the world. It was the first national bar association to have formally endorsed the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and has made the elimination of modern slavery and child labor in […]

December 2020 | Viewpoints

Audio | Can the UN Guiding Principles Unlock the Power of other Narratives to Transform how Business Impacts People?

In this short conversation, Caroline Rees (Shift) and Phil Bloomer (BHRRC) discuss how Business and Human Rights may offer a unique way to navigate this broad array of civil, political, economic, social and cultural impacts on people, both through their focus on those impacts that reach the point where they undermine people’s dignity and equality, and through their underpinning in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which provides a standard for what we can and should expect of business as well as governments.

ABOUT It is perhaps a cliché to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has surfaced the urgent need to reimagine the relationship between business and people. Over the past few months, we’ve seen how the workers that companies depend on the most – essential workers – are also very often the ones that are most vulnerable […]

September 2019 | Viewpoints

Are You Making a Difference? Listening to Affected Stakeholders to Improve Business Human Rights Performance

Shift Advisor Jana Mudronova discusses how meaningful stakeholder engagement can lead to more reliable, trusted and meaningful data, and play a key role in informing evaluation

Tracking whether company efforts to prevent and mitigate risks to people from business activities are effective is an integral part of the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights. Many companies undertake a range of monitoring activities to this end, including assessment of human rights risks, impact assessments, audits and reviews of grievances. While these periodically-used […]

September 2019 | Viewpoints

SMEs and the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights

Shift's Business Learning Program Director Francis West explains how many get it wrong on SMEs, and makes the case for smaller firms to take a bespoke approach.

“SMEs lack the resources and expertise to manage human rights issues.” “They’re too focused on small margins to invest in respecting people.” “SMEs don’t have any leverage.” “Without regulatory and reputational concerns, there’s no business case for small companies to care about human rights.” “How can large multinational companies possibly respect human rights when faced […]

June 2019 | Viewpoints

On LGBT Rights, True Corporate Allyship Means Using a Stethoscope, Not a Bullhorn

Advisor Daniel Berezowsky explains how using the UN Guiding Principles, companies can use their voice to spotlight LGBTQ rights, rather than using LGBTQ rights to cast a spotlight on themselves.

June 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the event that sparked the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movement. Ever since, queer communities have taken their fight for justice to the streets all over the world in their yearly Pride march. In a few (mostly Western) cities, Pride has become a celebration […]

May 2019 | Viewpoints

Rethinking Remedy and Responsibility in the Financial Sector

Senior Advisor David Kovick explains Shift's ecosystem approach to remedy, and how financial institutions can benefit from incorporating it to close the gap with traditional approaches.

The Remedy Gap There is much debate about the roles and responsibilities of financial institutions when it comes to respecting human rights. But there is one point on which we can all agree:  in too many cases, remedy is not available for people who are harmed by business activities, which are often connected in some […]

April 2019 | Viewpoints

Valuing Respect: Going from Research that Makes the Case to Tools that Make the Difference

Project Lead Mark Hodge looks back on progress made in 2018 and discusses the beta version of a new tool to help companies evaluate outcomes for people.

In 2018, our work on the Valuing Respect project made one thing clear: better evaluation of business respect for human rights starts with reconnecting to what we are trying to achieve in the world. That is, to remember that corporate policies, systems and programs have always been the means, not the ends, of the responsible business […]

March 2019 | Viewpoints

How Value Chain Mapping is Helping Companies Respect Human Rights

In this piece, Shift Advisor David Vermijs explains what value chain mapping is, and how companies like Heineken and ABN AMRO are using it to leverage business respect for human rights throughout their value chain.

Value chain mapping and traceability are common buzzwords in sustainability circles. But few companies are looking beyond a limited number of commodities or deliberately applying an explicit human rights lens to these processes. From my experience at Shift, working with dozens of companies, human rights value chain mapping is one of the most effective ways […]

January 2019 | Viewpoints

How to Write a More Meaningful Update Report Under the French Duty of Vigilance Law

Get on the right path to writing your first annual update, even if you don’t have everything figured out.

The countdown is on! If you handle reporting for a company covered by the French Loi relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d’ordre (the « Duty of Vigilance law »), you know it’s almost time to publish the first annual update on the implementation of your vigilance plan.   Here are […]

January 2019 | Viewpoints

Most Canadian Mining Companies are Lagging When It Comes to Human Rights Reporting. Here’s Why.

Shift’s analysis of the Canadian mining sector reveals strengths and weaknesses in how mining companies communicate on their management of impacts on people.

The global mining industry is a large, profitable sector, with a particularly strong presence in Canada. Revenue from the top 40 global mining companies, 15% of which are Canadian, amounted to more than $600 billion in 2017. Additionally, 57% of the world’s public mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). In contrast […]

January 2019 | Viewpoints

Gross inequality is the tragedy of the commons we must face up to in 2019

This article first appeared in the Ethical Corporation blog on December  18, 2018 As the year comes to an end, it is only natural to think back to the many business and human rights happenings of 2018: Facebook’s inaction as its platform was used to incite rape and murder in Myanmar; the continuing stories of displaced communities […]

October 2018 | Viewpoints

Meaningful Engagement with Affected Stakeholders

In this short piece from Senior Advisor David Kovick, he shares takeaways on meaningful stakeholder engagement by companies who are looking to respect human rights in their business practices, and some ways to put them into practice right away at your own company.

It was a busy summer here at Shift. We kicked it off in June with the 13th edition of our Business Learning Workshop. If you have been part of the Shift family for a while, you know how much value we place in the opportunity to engage more deeply with our business partners on a […]

April 2012 | Viewpoints

Professional Responsibility of Lawyers under the Guiding Principles

Hard and soft law developments with implications for lawyers as they advise corporate clients on human rights.

The core responsibility of business under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is to respect human rights, and to adopt policies, processes, and systems that enable them to know and show that they do so. So how should lawyers advise their corporate clients regarding this responsibility? This is not an idle question, […]