Businesses have a duty to respect human rights, regardless of their size, sector, location, ownership or structure.
Businesses are secondary subjects in discussions about human rights as States are the main guarantor of human rights.
However, businesses should avoid infringing human rights and should address any adverse impact on human rights in which they are involved. This includes:
- the responsibility to avoid causing or contributing to adverse impacts on human rights
- the responsibility to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights
example Businesses owning big data centres may be using up a lot of energy and water resources available in the area in which they are located. Moreso, as technology advances and wears out, the data centre may eventually produce a significant amount of electronic waste. The business has an obligation to evaluate this possible impact, especially on the surrounding population, and to remedy adverse impacts.
Businesses have a duty to have:
- a policy commitment to meet their responsibility to respect human rights
- a human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their impacts on human rights
- processes to enable the remediation of any adverse impacts on human rights which they have caused or to which they contribute
example Social media platforms should have a policy in place to ensure that they are not used to disseminate hate speech, and to have procedures in place to detect and remove any instances.
Right to an effective remedy
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy, including when faced with possible human rights violations by businesses. This will usually mean that the State allows for the use of its judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means to address violations.
Initially, you should always try to resolve any issue with the business in question if you think that it has violated your rights. Where possible, businesses should present the available complaint mechanisms on their websites or in another way that is easy to understand and use.
In Estonia, you can use the services of the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority which provides an out-of-court process to resolve a disagreement between a business and an applicant on the compliance of the business’ actions (inaction) with the requirements of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.
In addition, people faced with possible violations can apply to the County Court or, depending on the situation, seek help from other human rights institutions.