Human Rights Rising On The Corporate Risk Agenda: The Intertwining Of Corruption And Human Rights

The French law known  as  “Devoir  de  Vigilance”  or  DdV, may have  created  a  domino effect, as  similar regulatory activity is accelerating, such as the EU Directive on supply chain due diligence, the German Supply Chain law, and many more. 

The  mobilization of civil society organizations on these initiatives advocating for binding  legal  frameworks  and  civil,  and  even  potentially  criminal,  liability  is  getting  increasingly strong. These efforts generally follow  the  movement  initiated  by  the  United  Nations  Guiding  Principles  on  Business  and  Human  Rights  (UNGP)  in  June  2011  and  the  2011  revision  of  the  Organisation  for  Economic  Cooperation  and  Development  (OECD)  Guidelines  for  Multinational  Enterprises,  more and more States  are  proposing legislation  imposing  a mandatory due diligence plan on public  limited  companies and  their  supply  chain  addressing  human  rights  abuses.  So  far,  the  French  bill is limited to corporations  with  five  thousand  or  more  employees (including within their French  subsidiaries),  or  10  thousand  or  more  (including  within  all  subsidiaries,  both  French  and  foreign).  But the next wave of regulations have much broader criteria.

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