Human rights due diligence
Human rights due diligence consulting
Solari advises organizations building human rights due diligence programs under the EU CSDDD, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance.
What it is
What human rights due diligence requires
Human rights due diligence is the process through which organizations identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse human rights impacts in their operations and value chains. It is how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights translate from policy commitment into operational practice.
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive has made that process a legal obligation for organizations above defined thresholds operating in or supplying the EU market, and it requires them to act on what they find. Because HRDD reaches into value chain relationships the organization does not control, an effective program is built to surface salient risks there and turn findings into operational decisions.
The regulatory context
The frameworks that govern HRDD
EU CSDDD
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive establishes mandatory human rights due diligence obligations for large companies operating in the EU. Organizations within scope must identify and address adverse impacts, establish grievance mechanisms, and adopt climate transition plans.
Phased implementation from 2027. Transposition into member-state law underway.
UN Guiding Principles
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights establish the three-pillar structure: state duty to protect, corporate responsibility to respect, and access to remedy. HRDD is the operational mechanism of the second pillar.
Endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The baseline for all subsequent mandatory HRDD instruments.
OECD Due Diligence Guidance
The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct is the most operationally detailed framework for conducting HRDD across value chains, with sector supplements for extractive industries, garment, agriculture, and financial services. OECD National Contact Points provide a grievance mechanism for affected communities.
Sector instruments
The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights govern extractive operations in conflict-affected areas, and the ICMM's sector guidance shapes human rights due diligence for mining companies. The German Supply Chain Act and French Duty of Vigilance Law preceded the CSDDD and remain in force in their jurisdictions.
The process
What the HRDD process requires
01 · Identify
Identify and assess impacts
Map actual and potential adverse human rights impacts across operations and value chain relationships. Prioritize by severity and likelihood to identify the salient risks for the organization's sector, geography, and supply chain.
02 · Integrate
Integrate findings and act
Embed findings in procurement decisions, supplier contracts, and governance structures. Where the organization causes or contributes to harm, it must cease or prevent the conduct. Where harm is linked through business relationships, it must use leverage to influence the responsible party.
03 · Track
Track effectiveness
Establish indicators that show whether responses to identified impacts are working. Because risk profiles shift with suppliers, geographies, and operations, tracking runs continuously and captures whether impacts have been prevented, mitigated, or remediated over time.
04 · Communicate
Communicate how impacts are addressed
Report publicly on how impacts are identified and addressed. The EU CSDDD and CSRD set specific disclosure requirements, and the reporting must let external stakeholders assess the adequacy of the organization's response.
The advisory work
Where HRDD advisory adds what frameworks cannot
The frameworks specify what organizations must do. They do not resolve the questions that determine whether a program functions: which risks are salient for a specific value chain, how to prioritize when resources are constrained, how to build leverage with a supplier that resists engagement, or how to structure a grievance mechanism that affected communities will actually use.
Solari's HRDD engagements cover human rights impact assessment design, salient risk identification and prioritization, supply chain mapping, grievance mechanism design, CSDDD readiness assessments, and the governance and reporting infrastructure behind regulatory disclosure.
The analytical foundation is grounded in institutional human rights research: a research contribution to UN Human Rights Council report A/HRC/54/30 on contemporary forms of slavery, produced as a Graduate Research Analyst under the UN Special Rapporteur, and advisory work with an extractive-sector organization entering CSDDD scope, where supply chain human rights risk is most structurally complex.
Common questions
Human rights due diligence, explained
What does HRDD mean?
HRDD stands for human rights due diligence: the ongoing process through which organizations identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse human rights impacts in their operations and value chains. The UN Guiding Principles established it as the mechanism for discharging the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and it applies regardless of what local law prohibits.
What are the requirements on human rights due diligence?
The requirements depend on which instruments apply. The EU CSDDD requires in-scope organizations to identify and address adverse impacts, establish grievance mechanisms, adopt climate transition plans, and report publicly. The UN Guiding Principles apply to all businesses, the OECD Guidance gives the most operational detail, and the German Supply Chain Act and French Duty of Vigilance Law add national obligations.
What is the first step in human rights due diligence?
The first step is identifying and assessing actual and potential adverse impacts across operations and value chain relationships. That means mapping the value chain, assessing exposures against internationally recognized human rights standards, and prioritizing by severity and likelihood. Organizations routinely underestimate how far into the value chain the assessment must reach.
What is the EU CSDDD and who does it apply to?
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive establishes mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence obligations for large companies operating in the EU. It applies to EU companies with more than 1,000 employees and worldwide turnover above €450 million, and to non-EU companies with EU turnover above that threshold. Non-compliance carries civil liability and administrative penalties.
What are salient human rights risks?
Salient human rights risks are the most severe potential impacts of an organization's activities and relationships, prioritized by severity of harm and the number of people affected rather than by likelihood of legal liability. The concept comes from the UN Guiding Principles, and the prioritization methodology itself draws regulatory scrutiny.
How does human rights due diligence differ from ESG reporting?
Human rights due diligence is an operational process designed to prevent and address harm; ESG reporting is a disclosure function that communicates performance through standardized metrics. HRDD findings feed ESG disclosures, but an organization can publish comprehensive reports while conducting no meaningful HRDD, and that gap is increasingly the focus of enforcement and civil liability.