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Defining the Relationships: “Cause, Contribute, and Directly Linked to” in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
- Human Rights Quarterly
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 43, Number 4, November 2021
- pp. 625-658
- 10.1353/hrq.2021.0053
- Article
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ABSTRACT:
According to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, businesses owe remediation when they “cause” or “contribute to” a human rights impact, but not when they are only “directly linked to” it. These terms determine when a victim is entitled to seek remediation from a business, but they have largely been ignored in existing scholarship. This article investigates the meaning of “cause, contribute, and directly linked to”, revealing confusion and uncertainty before proposing a new system, built on existing authoritative guidance, for interpreting the terms and determining when businesses owe remediation for their human rights impacts.