The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights stated Friday that states and businesses must ensure that their corporate governance standards respect human rights and that these rights are integrated at every stage of corporate activity, including decision-making and regular operations, in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles).
The Chairperson of the Working Group, Robert McCorquodale, presented a report to the UN General Assembly in which he highlights that corporate governance approaches and decisions made by companies’ boards and senior management have global impacts both on small businesses and communities.
On this issue, Robert MacCorquoda stated: “The effectiveness of the application of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by companies relies on good corporate governance and executive leadership to ensure that decision-making and corporate culture are aligned with respect for people and the planet, and that these are embedded throughout operations…Poor corporate governance concerning human rights matters can lead to many human rights abuses, affecting workers, communities and other rights holders.”
In their report, experts stressed that corporate responsibility to respect human rights should be upheld regardless of the existence of state laws, as required by principle 11 of the Guiding Principles. They also identified the current flaws in corporate governance models worldwide that fail to comply with the Guiding Principles, thereby leading to human rights abuses. Among these flaws is the absence of the duty to respect human rights within the broader regulatory framework, including corporate and securities regulations, accountability mechanisms, and also the design of directors’ duties. On this last issue, experts noted that most legislation stipulate that dircetors have to act in the best interests of a company, prioritizing shareholders’ primacy and profit maximization while ignoring the impacts on other stakeholders and human rights.
Consequently, the Working Group proposed a set of recommendations on corporate governance standards that include a human rights-based perspective. Firstly, experts recommended that states enact laws obliging senior company executives to take human rights into account in decision-making and to provide clear guidance to businesses to integrate human rights considerations into managerial and executive remuneration. Additionally, states should enact legislation that impose sanctions on companies and their directors personally when there is a lack of oversight and management of adverse human rights risks associated with the company’s activity.
The UN has previously called on member states to enhance their oversight of business projects to ensure full respect of human rights. In March 2026, the UN expressed cocerns about the African Development Bank’s funding of a liquified gas project in Mozambique, citing fears of human rights violations and diversion of scarce public funds away from essential investments. In August, a group of experts urged Guatemala to take concrete action to ensure accountability for business-related human rights violations.
Several companies have previously been convicted of human rights abuses and even crimes against humanity, such as finacing terrorism, causing environmental harm, and forced labor. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and the proliferation of online services pose new risks to the human right to privacy. In October, the UN called for an international treaty to regulate cross-border data transfers, highliting that current norms are ineffective to protect trade and the human right to privacy.
