A look at a world where there’s no tool to assess our risk priorities…
As we move on from what Special Representative John Ruggie famously called ” The End of the Beginning” for business and human rights issues, a significant issue that has come up is implementation. Companies are struggling with the best way to measure and assess human rights impacts and what those metrics should include. There are many issues that arise within this context. First, how do you quantify and measure something like “human rights” for bean counters who are used to quantifiable financial risks? Something as nebulous as “the deprivation in indigenous communities” can be terrifying for those folks. Another issue that frequently arises is, how do you prioritize within the many things that could affect a human rights risk assessment?
Well, below are two different takes on “assessing” human rights impact assessment. The first was presented by Roger Branigin during WVU’s business and human rights conference. Mr. Branigin, Executive Director of the Global Community of Practice for Business and Human Rights (a project endorsed by the UN Global Compact Office) proposes a “bow tie” assessment model that filters risk analysis through two-ended filter.(Look for “WV Presentation PowerPoint on the conference websitehere, for a full explanation of the tools).
The second was prepared by NoMoGaia, an initiative developed to measure human rights impacts (see a link to a complete discussion of their tool, here). There are advantages and disadvantages to each tool. The NoMoGaia matrix provides a comprehensive list of things to consider in business transactions with human rights implications. This makes it an incredibly thorough but somewhat less nimble tool. Mr. Branigin’s tool, in contrast, offers a way for companies to assess potential human rights impacts in a much quicker way. However, because it is not as exhaustive, there is a greater risk that something could lost in the cracks. Both, however, represent a huge step forward in developing a benchmark for human rights risk assessment. Given the previous vacuum, these tools are a significant boon for people who care about this work.
Cartoon taken from http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-03-28/
(reprinted here per the company’s fair use policy).
