The ILA White Paper on Business and Human Rights

The ILA White Paper on Business and Human Rights reflects the current state of international law with respect to Business and Human Rights (BHR), the challenges BHR must engage with, and the outstanding questions for 2050.

Due to the breadth of BHR, the White Paper shows the vast reach of BHR rules at the local, national and multi-national levels, across a range of sectors, and involving a variety of stakeholders.
It covers a “smart mix” of mandatory and voluntary measures, which includes legislation enacted by states, principles and guidance designed by multilateral or regional institutions, together with policies, standards and practices emanating from private actors in specific sectors, to promote responsible business. It reveals the fragmentation of the existing regulatory and non-regulatory measures, their lack of coherence and their complexity, which raise challenges that are addressed in the next Part. Yet, all these measures reflect the diversity of the field, its wide scope and its polycentric governance system.

Meeting the challenges of BHR means first understanding the world in which these rights must be protected. It is a world in a state of crisis shaken by armed conflicts, poverty, migration flows, shrinking civic spaces, populism and corruption. The socio-economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has further laid bare and amplified existing inequalities and injustices, including abuse of human rights and pervasive gender and racial discrimination. Yet it is also an ever-interconnected world driven by new political momenta and a social conscience relying ever more on civil society. In this context, never has it been more important to engage with these challenges and hear the voices of all the stakeholders to find solutions and build a fairer and more inclusive society. The White Paper addresses six relevant challenges for BHR: the uncertain evolution of the regulatory space; global and regional supply chains; the unresolved quest for domestic and international accountability; the perennial discussion on international legal personality; the complex challenge of ensuring environmental protection and fighting against climate change; and the question of norms, practice and the redefinition of the purpose of business. While this list of challenges does not intend to cover all of the existing and future issues in the field of business and human rights, it provides some reflections on key aspects that international law must address to contribute to securing more responsible business conduct in the decades ahead.
Finally, the White Paper raises 7 questions to be answered before 2050.