To assess the quality of HRIA, Oxfam developed a Human Rights Impact Assessment Framework clarifying the key criteria (both process and content) needed to ensure the HRIA is robust. The framework also provides guidance and best practices. The key criteria cover the following categories:
Given the commitments to conduct HRIAs made by several retailers in the food sector (including several in the seafood sector), Oxfam undertook an analysis of the HRIAs and published a report, Towards Meaningful Human Rights Impact Assessments, identifying best practice efforts and points of improvements based on the HRIA Assessment Framework. The key recommendations include:
As mandatory HREDD legislation becomes more prevalent, there are increasingly legal reasons to carry out HRIAs. However, there are additionally clear benefits to businesses as well. As Oxfam notes, ‘By documenting the identified impacts and corresponding actions taken to address them, an HRIA enhances businesses’ accountability. It provides a transparent record of the steps taken to mitigate adverse effects and demonstrates the company’s commitment to respecting human rights. HRIAs also encourage the formation of partnerships between businesses and other stakeholders to develop joint actions to address cumulative impacts or legacy issues that require collective efforts. The knowledge and insights gained from the assessment can also inform and improve HREDD processes, purchasing practices and other activities.’
Specific benefits to businesses include:
HRIAs can be commissioned by companies interested in looking into their own supply chains. But they can also be implemented by other actors interested in understanding the impact of a company’s operations and wanting to have a greater involvement in the process. Community-led HRIAs (COBHRAs)put rights holders in the driver’s seat, emphasizing the human rights concerns of local communities rather than starting from the company’s perspective. In a COBHRA, communities identify the human rights risks and impacts they consider the most important, engage the different stakeholders involved including the company and governments, analyze the information collected, and compile the findings and key recommendations in a report to share with governments and companies.
A recent briefing paper by Oxfam …
No matter who conducts the HRIA, if implemented correctly, the process should offer a thorough assessment of all internationally recognized human rights (and not a limited set of pre-selected ones). It must ensure that rights holder engagement isn’t a tick box exercise, but rather that it is included in all steps of the process, from the identification of issues to the identification of solutions, ensuring that the process actively empowers rights holders. HRIAs don’t focus on a descriptive analysis of human rights abuses at a specific moment, but they offer a deeper look to understand the root causes of abuses, such as buyer procurement practice. They are focused on moving from analysis to action emphasizing the need to include a time-bound action plan. Finally, as transparency is a key human rights principle, HRIAs must be published to allow stakeholders and rights holders to understand the human rights risks and impacts as well as steps taken to address them, contributing to a greater accountability of companies.
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