Consultation Process on the Human Rights Compliance Assessment

In May of 2003, the Human Rights & Business Project initiated a yearlong consultation process on the Human Rights Compliance Assessment (HRCA), which was funded by the EU Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs. The principal purpose of the process was to refine the HRCA standards and ensure their acceptability to both the business and human rights communities. A number of individuals from a wide range of companies, human rights organisations, corporate social responsibility organisations, research institutes, and universities were invited to review the HRCA standards and provide suggestions for modification.  

The consultation process involved several phases; each with its own set of participants and focus areas. In its entirety, the consultation process consisted of several expert reviews, 40 dialogue reviews, a development bank conference, and a specialist committee meeting, which are each described in more detail below:

Expert Reviews
A number of human rights experts in various fields of expertise were recruited to review and evaluate the HRCA standards.   The experts were selected for their subject-matter expertise and brought extensive knowledge on labour, economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the rights of vulnerable groups.   The experts were charged with the task of ensuring that vulnerable groups (such as indigenous people, minorities, women and children) received due coverage in the HRCA and that no relevant subjects or issues were overlooked.

Dialogue Reviews
During the dialogue reviews, over 40 teams - each consisting of one company representative and one NGO representative - worked together to review rights allocated from the HRCA database.    The dialogue-reviews were designed to create a balance between different interests: While companies would ensure that economic and political limitations were given due consideration in the HRCA, NGO participants would advocate for the community interests potentially affected by company operations.   Following an individual review of the rights assigned, each team met together with a representative from the Human Rights and Business Project to debate suggestions for modification.   Agreed changes were recorded for incorporation into the HRCA and disagreements were held for final discussion before the HRCA Specialist Committee.

HRCA Specialist Committee Meeting
The HRCA Specialist Committee Meeting took place at the end of April 2004 in Copenhagen. The meeting was composed of five representatives from human rights groups and five from the business community. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the most controversial areas and outstanding issues of disagreement identified by the review-teams during the Consultation Process. After first discussing each suggested change, the committee was mandated to decide whether or not the suggested changes should be made.

Annual Meeting of European Development Finance Institutions
Arranged in cooperation with the Danish Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), the Human Rights & Business Project hosted the annual meeting of the European Development Finance Institutions at the end of May 2004. During the conference, participants assisted the Human Rights and Business Project team in developing the HRCA ‘Quick Check’ by identifying the most pressing human rights issues from a business perspective, and providing suggestions for additions and deletions to a list of 50 proposed quick check questions.   After final editing, the ‘HRCA Quick-Check’ was released in November 2004 and is now freely available on our website.

The Results of the Consultation Process
Representatives from organisations all over Europe participated in the Consultation Process, and 14 European countries were represented in the consultations. More than 40 review teams were established and large corporations as well as small and medium-sized enterprises gave comments on the HRCA. Moreover, a wide range of industry sectors were represented, including the extractive sector, the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, food and beverages, telecommunications, and manufacturing and apparel. Likewise, human rights organisations, corporate social responsibility organisations, universities and research institutions of different interests and fields of expertise were given the opportunity to review and comment on the HRCA.

This broad and wide-ranging participation resulted in a multifaceted and comprehensive review of the HRCA, helping to ensure   that the standards reflect a wider consensus within the business and human rights communities, and that the tool addresses the actual needs of businesses and the human rights challenges they encounter when operating abroad.

The Human Rights & Business Project thanks all those who took part in the Consultation Process. Your feedback provided valuable insight and helped us to further the aim of the HRCA: Creating a practical and operational tool for effectively implementing human rights in a business context.

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