Enforcing the State Duty to Protect under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Strasbourg Views

With the recent adoption of the Declaration on Business and Human Rights, of 16 April 2014, and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)3 on human rights and business, of 2 March 2016, the Council of Europe has moved some first steps toward the operationalizing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) within its legal system. Interestingly, the acquis resulting from this early, and developing, policy framework, highlights three main areas in which CoE human rights treaties (and first of all the European Convention on Human Rights) with their mechanisms of control, may play a vanguard role when the objective of implementing UNGPs is concerned. These areas involve: a) the duty of States to take appropriate steps to protect against human rights abuses by business enterprises; b) the duty of States to formulate and implement policies and measures to promote that all business enterprises respect human rights throughout their operations, within (and even beyond) their national jurisdiction); c) the duty of States to take appropriate steps to ensure those affected have access to effective remedy.