What is human rights due diligence?
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). These guidelines describe the State duty to protect, and the corporate responsibility to respect human rights throughout their direct operations and supply chains, by identifying, preventing, mitigating and bringing to an end actual or potential harms. Embedded in this approach is constant vigilance and risk assessment, appropriate action in response to potential and actual risks identified, continuous learning from action taken and transparent reporting on issues and progress. Since their publication, the UNGPs have formed the basis of a number of other important guidance documents such as the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
HRDD in the cocoa supply chain
Over the past years, the need for Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) legislation has grown around the world. For example, in the cocoa sector, there have been increasing calls for mandatory legislation at the European Union (EU) level, from civil society, international organisations, governments, in addition to cocoa and chocolate companies. These calls have also extended to other countries, such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
At ICI, we believe that if designed well, HRDD legislation can drive responsible business practices in the cocoa sector and accelerate the scale up of prevention and remediation mechanisms that have been proven effective in tackling child labour and forced labour.
Forced labour import bans
Importing and making available products made with forced labour is also increasingly under scrutiny around the world, with new legislation adopted in the EU and elsewhere. Where relevant, ICI has been sharing feedback and recommendations, advocating for alignment and coherence with HRDD legislation where they exist.
What do we do?
Our members receive regular policy updates, informing them about the latest legislative and policy development in the EU and elsewhere. We also prepare policy briefings, providing members with more in-depth analysis.
In addition, we work at the national and international level to help shape the appropriate enabling environment and create conditions for the scale up, and alignment, of these and other actions to address child labour and forced labour. For example, we are actively engaged in dialogue at the EU level through the Sustainable Supply Chains Coalition, an informal group which brings together companies and civil society groups from the agricultural sector, including cocoa. Formerly known as the Cocoa Coalition, it aims to support the development of relevant EU policy measures (including an EU-wide HRDD legislation) capable of driving the production of sustainable cocoa within a dignified and responsibly-managed supply chain. For more information, please see our position papers.
We also support the cocoa sector implement and scale up human rights due diligence approaches for example Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) that follow a risk-based due diligence approach in line with guidance from the UNGPs and the OECD, or Community Development Approaches. For more information about how these systems support HRDD, see our Briefing: Human Rights Due Diligence in the cocoa sector: CLMRS and Community Development Approaches in comparison.