Networked Expertise in Support of Human Rights Impact Assessment

The Center joined forces with American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, and Law Program; American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights, Business and Human Rights Project; and NomoGaia to bring multidisciplinary expertise to bear on the corporate due diligence process. The project connected thought leaders and practitioners in the fields of natural and social sciences, business, human rights, and law to create a network to foster the gathering, sharing, and use of information necessary to facilitate the corporate responsibility to respect human rights.

The goal of the project was to make multinational business a force for positive development and human rights protection worldwide through promotion of corporate Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIA). Our objectives were to generate and promote consensus on HRIA methodological standardization and good practices; share information on HRIA via a web-based portal, the HRIA Knowledge Hub; foster a multidisciplinary network of experts on HRIA; share knowledge and educate experts in related disciplines, areas of practice, and fields of impact assessment on HRIA; and transparently test pilot good practices in interdisciplinary HRIA methods.