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Summary of Recommendations for an IOC Human Rights Strategy

In March 2020, Shift’s Rachel Davis and the former UN Human Rights Chief, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, delivered the report ‘Recommendations for an IOC Human Rights Strategy’ to IOC President Thomas Bach. The report in full has been made publicly available by the IOC on the organization’s website. Below is a summary of the recommendations that were included in the report, grouped into five pillars.

The authors recommend:

1. Articulating the IOC’s human rights responsibilities, including by adopting appropriate amendments to the Olympic Charter and other core documents, developing a detailed human rights policy commitment reflecting the expectations of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and setting similar expectations for the Olympic Movement as a whole through the “Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance of the Olympic and Sports Movement”.

2. Embedding respect for human rights across the organization to ensure that the IOC’s commitment is driven into its values and culture, including by: hiring a Head of Human Rights to lead implementation of a new human rights strategy, supported by a Human Rights Unit; establishing a cross-functional steering group on human rights at Director-level; ensuring the IOC’s governing bodies take full account of human rights in their decision-making (including through the role of the proposed Human Rights Advisory Committee); and ensuring that there is human rights expertise in the IOC’s consultative Commissions. 

3. Identifying and addressing human rights risks by strengthening human rights due diligence across the IOC’s operations, including by: routinely integrating the perspectives of affected stakeholders (such as athletes, journalists, volunteers, fans, workers and local communities) into the process of identifying and taking action on human rights risks; significantly strengthening the way in which athlete voice and representation informs decision-making within the IOC and the Movement more broadly; taking a more robust approach to using the IOC’s leverage with National Olympic Committees and International Federations on human rights issues; and integrating a focus on salient human rights issues (such as child protection and respect for athletes’ human rights) into existing areas of the IOC’s work.

4. Tracking and communicating on the IOC’s progress, including by: evaluating the human rights performance of the IOC’s partners, especially that of OCOGs for upcoming editions of the Olympic Games; deepening the IOC’s engagement with affected stakeholders and their legitimate representatives (including trade union representatives where athletes are unionized), or with credible proxies for affected stakeholders’ views where direct engagement is not possible; and enhancing transparency about the IOC’s human rights efforts.

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Statement on the Publication of the Report ‘Recommendations for an IOC Human Rights Strategy’

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5. Strengthening the wider remedy ecosystem in sport by contributing to a significant improvement in the quality of grievance mechanisms at all levels of sport, including strengthening sports bodies’ own mechanisms, supporting social dialogue processes in sport, and enabling access to state-based forms of remedy for severe human rights harms. We recommended that this should begin with an initial focus on: improving access to remedy in cases of harassment and abuse; improving Games-time grievance mechanisms (run by the IOC as well as by OCOGs); and reviewing the preparedness of the IOC’s own systems to handle human rights complaints.

Download the full report
ABOUT THE AUTHORS


Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein was the UN human rights chief from 2014-2018; and is a highly-regarded defender and promoter of universal human rights -awarded the Stockholm prize in 2015 as well the Tulip prize in 2018 for his human rights work.  For much of his career, he was a senior diplomat, serving twice as Jordan’s ambassador to the United Nations (in New York) and once as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States (2007-2010).  He also represented Jordan twice before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).  In January 2014, he served as president of the UN Security Council.  Earlier, in 2002 he was elected the first president of the governing body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) — guiding the court’s growth in its first three years (9/2002-9/2005).  He chaired some of the most complex legal negotiations associated with the court’s statute.  He contributed to the international community’s efforts at countering the threat of nuclear materials being trafficked by terrorists (2010-2014).  And he led the UN’s efforts at eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping (2004-2007). From 1994-1996, he was a UN civilian peacekeeper with UNPROFOR.  He has degrees from Johns Hopkins and Cambridge universities.  In 2019, he was appointed a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders working for peace, justice and human rights, founded by Nelson Mandela.  He is currently the Perry World House Professor of the Practice of Law and Human Rights at the University of Pennsylvania.  In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and awarded an honorary knighthood (KCMG) from Queen Elizabeth II.


Rachel Davis is Co-founder and Vice President of Shift, the leading center of expertise on the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights, where she has led work for the last decade on standard-setting, human rights and sports, financial institutions, conflict and international law. Rachel has been the Chair of FIFA’s independent Human Rights Advisory Board since it was established in 2017 and has advised the International Olympic Committee on human rights since 2018. She was a senior legal advisor to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on business and human rights, Harvard Professor John Ruggie (2006-2011), and is a Senior Program Fellow with the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School. An author of the leading study on the costs of company-community conflict in the extractive sector, Rachel has worked at the High Court of Australia and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of New South Wales.

Making ‘Stakeholder Capitalism’ Work: Contributions from Business & Human Rights

For the first time in four decades, leading business associations, corporations, and the corporate law and governance community are seriously debating the social purpose of the corporation. The idea of stakeholder governance – moving beyond shareholder primacy toward some form of ‘stakeholder capitalism’ – is in play. But the how question unveils significant differences of opinion as well as difficulties. Some advocates place their bet on enlightened voluntary cooperation between corporations, large institutional investors, and other stakeholders. Yet considering the financial incentives, the current system affords corporate directors and executives, especially in the Anglo-American system, driven by equity-based compensation, voluntarism by itself is unlikely to move the needle far enough. Others provide long and detailed lists of a dozen or more bodies of law and regulations that should be reformed to ensure that accountability to wider stakeholders is established. But that inevitably poses multiple political impediments and therefore takes time. For their part, critics of ‘stakeholderism’ posit what amounts to an impossibility theorem, contending that corporate leaders simply are unable to identify ex ante who the relevant stakeholders are, or to devise a formula regarding how to weigh and balance their conflicting interests – let alone how their concerns would be represented at board levels. 

In contrast, we focus on a pathway that reflects the ambition of stakeholder capitalism, but which current reform proposals have largely overlooked. We draw on practical experience in the field of business and human rights, where leading companies are increasingly embedding human rights due diligence processes into their strategic decision-making. As human rights due diligence is made mandatory for companies, which it is in a growing number of jurisdictions – with debate centered in but not limited to Europe – risks to stakeholders become a significant corporate governance issue. It makes it necessary that their concerns are addressed and requires demonstration that indeed they are. Such changes by themselves may not constitute a full-blown system of multi-fiduciary obligations, but they mark substantial strides on the path toward it, and they are doing it in the relatively near-term. 

Transforming How Business Impacts People: Unlocking the Collective Power of Five Distinct Narratives

Narratives drive conversations. They serve a framing purpose and offer a lens through which we enter a discussion, make sense of an issue and find meaning in our world. Ultimately, they shape decisions. When it comes to conversations about how people are affected by business conduct and the global economy, a number of distinct narratives are influencing decision-makers today: the development narrative of sustainability; the political narrative of inequality; the economic narrative of stakeholder capitalism; the investment narrative of ESG performance; and the accounting narrative of human and social capital. All of these narratives co-exist, yet they also compete for attention.

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In this working paper, Caroline Rees explains why continuing down this siloed approach could result in each of these narratives becoming unnecessarily diluted and falling short of its aims. By contrast, she proposes that the narrative of business of human rights – grounded in global normative standards and a focus on those people most at risk of harm from business practices – can be of central relevance in bringing these other five narratives together, and helping them achieve a goal they all share: a world in which business gets done with respect for the basic dignity and equality of everyone.

This paper is a collaboration between Shift and the Corporate Responsibility Initiative of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Setting Targets and Tracking Performance

Increasingly, investors are becoming interested in understanding to what extent companies are respecting human rights, and whether their efforts are likely to improve the lives of affected people. A good place to start is by reading a company’s human rights disclosure. But company reports are often hard to analyze.  On the surface, many companies will seem to be doing the right thing. But, how can investors tell whether what they are reading is meaningful and in line with what the UN Guiding Principles expect? This collection of resources was designed by Shift to help investors apply a people-centered approach to gain deeper insights from company disclosure.

In particular, this resource uses excerpts from companies’ reporting on setting targets and tracking performance. It examines:

  • Whether the company’s targets set and track in reporting are limited to activities or outputs;
  • Whether the company follows up on the extent to which all of targets set in one reporting period were met in the next;
  • Whether data on human rights performance is aggregated such that meaningful insights cannot be drawn from the disclosure.

Examples of Targeted Action

Increasingly, investors are becoming interested in understanding to what extent companies are respecting human rights, and whether their efforts are likely to improve the lives of affected people. A good place to start is by reading a company’s human rights disclosure. But company reports are often hard to analyze.  On the surface, many companies will seem to be doing the right thing. But, how can investors tell whether what they are reading is meaningful and in line with what the UN Guiding Principles expect? This collection of resources was designed by Shift to help investors apply a people-centered approach to gain deeper insights from company disclosure.

In particular, this resource uses examples from companies’ reporting their targeted action.  It examines:

  • Whether the company only reports generally on its process for identifying and addressing human rights impacts;
  • Whether the company reports on how the perspectives of affected stakeholders informed its understanding of the impact and its decisions on what action to take;
  • Whether the company talks about engagement with suppliers or other business partners on human rights-related issues in terms of compliance.

Taking Action on Systemic Human Rights Challenges

Increasingly, investors are becoming interested in understanding to what extent companies are respecting human rights, and whether their efforts are likely to improve the lives of affected people. A good place to start is by reading a company’s human rights disclosure. But company reports are often hard to analyze.  On the surface, many companies will seem to be doing the right thing. But, how can investors tell whether what they are reading is meaningful and in line with what the UN Guiding Principles expect? This collection of resources was designed by Shift to help investors apply a people-centered approach to gain deeper insights from company disclosure.

In particular, this resource uses excerpts from companies’ reporting on systemic human rights challenges. It looks at:

  • Whether the company positions itself solely as part of the solution to the human rights challenge concerned;
  • Whether the company only reports its membership in groups or collective initiatives that tackle certain systemic human rights risks without describing its engagement with these initiatives and how this contributes to change;
  • Whether the company reports on any actions it has taken unilaterally to address its own potential involvement with that issue.

Risk Identification

Increasingly, investors are becoming interested in understanding to what extent companies are respecting human rights, and whether their efforts are likely to improve the lives of affected people. A good place to start is by reading a company’s human rights disclosure. But company reports are often hard to analyze.  On the surface, many companies will seem to be doing the right thing. But, how can investors tell whether what they are reading is meaningful and in line with what the UN Guiding Principles expect? This collection of resources was designed by Shift to help investors apply a people-centered approach to gain deeper insights from company disclosure.

This resource examines five excerpts from companies on their reporting of identification and prioritization of human rights risks. In particular, it looks at: 

  • Whether the company only reports on issues it deems material to the business;
  • If the only indicated external input for the human rights issues the company prioritizes is a generic survey;
  • If a company’s list of material issues includes both individual human rights and a category of ‘human rights’;
  • Whether human rights issues are listed in company disclosure without further explanation of how these relate to the business’s own operations and value chain.

Accountability as part of Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence: Three Key Considerations for Business

The European debate on mandatory human rights due diligence (HRDD) has gained significant momentum in the last year. A number of national initiatives are coming to a head in late 2020, and the European Commission is launching a formal consultation on a potential EU-wide regime on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. We have seen growing business support for mandatory HRDD, from both individual companies and business associations, as well as an increase in joint calls by business and civil society for such measures.

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Opening Remarks by John Ruggie at the Conference “Human Rights and Decent Work in Global Supply Chains”

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As we approach this critical moment, we have been working hard at Shift to support constructive discussions among government, business and civil society allies about the role and content of new regulation. In particular, we have been engaging with businesses that are supportive of new measures, but have concerns about what shape it might take and what the consequences might be.

In this briefing note, we explore what well-designed mandatory HRDD measures could look like, with a focus on the role of accountability – or consequences – for meeting a new legal standard of conduct. We set out three key considerations that we believe businesses that are committed to meeting their responsibility to respect human rights should keep in mind:

  1. The legitimate role of liability in implementing the UN Guiding Principles
  2. Incentivizing robust HRDD through accountability measures that go beyond liability
  3. Assessing the quality of a company’s due diligence

“Effective regulation should take account of the legitimate concerns of various stakeholder groups. For mandatory HRDD, that means forging legislation that speaks to businesses’ concerns that liability on its own won’t incentivize the right kinds of practices and behaviors by companies throughout their value chains. But it also has to address the understandable views of civil society that a failure to meet an agreed standard of conduct should result in robust consequences, including a basis for those harmed to seek remedy.”

Rachel davis, vice president of shift