On June 16th 2011, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights. The Guiding Principles were unprecedented on many levels, including by reaffirming and clarifying state duties to protect against abuses involving business and by authoritatively setting out for the first time the human rights responsibilities of all companies. 

Five years on, IHRB reflects on the state of business and human rights, through a series of podcasts and commentaries.

The author of the UN Guiding Principles on the State of Business and Human Rights 

In a wide-ranging conversation with IHRB's Salil Tripathi at his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the former UN Special Representative on Business & Human Rights Professor John Ruggie notes that the experimentation and practice that has taken place over the last five years by a range of organisations to elaborate the application of the Guiding Principles for different actors and sectors has been extremely positive, but also highlights the need for further breadth and depth moving forward. | Listen now

Views on Progress from IHRB's Partners & Staff

Myanmar

Director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), Vicky Bowman reflects on the translation challenges of bringing the UN Guiding Principles into Myanmar practices. | Read now

Colombia

Executive Director of CREER, the centre for responsible business in Colombia which IHRB helped to found, Luis Fernando de Angulo highlights the swift evolution of business and human rights locally, albeit occuring in waves. | Read now

Kenya

IHRB's Programme Manager for East Africa, Rose Kimotho, discusses the promising but unequal levels of implementation across the 'protect', 'respect' and 'remedy' legs in Kenya. | Read now

Reflections from the Field

India

In this podcast, Nityanand Jayaraman discusses activism and the struggle for justice in India. | Listen now

Bosnia

Chris Bennett speaks on Bosnia-Herzegovina and multi-stakeholder approaches in post-conflict societies. | Listen now

Bangladesh

Syeda Rizwana Hasan on Bangladesh and preventing impacts in weak governance areas. | Listen now