Business and human rights in the GIG economy

Abstract

Human rights responsibilities of corporates / business arise from the fact that corporate entities, in the course of their business, inevitably impact human rights – whether it is negatively or positively. In business as usual, the negative impacts or human rights violations often go unregulated. Thus, there was a need to create an international governance framework to explicitly address the obligations of national governments in relation to business and the specific human rights responsibilities of companies. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) represents the operationalization of an international framework to ensure protection of human rights in a business environment. The UNGP enshrines the 3-pillar framework of 'Protect, Respect, Remedy' – namely that states must protect; companies must respect; and those who are harmed must have redress.