Business and human rights: access to remedy improvements

Business and human rights
Justice, victims’ rights and judicial cooperation
This project looks at obstacles and promising practices in relation to access to remedies for victims of business-related human rights abuses. By analysing complaints mechanisms in EU Member States, this research maps what hinders and what facilitates access to remedies.
Project Status
Findings available
Project start date
March
2018
Report / Paper / Summary
6
October
2020

Business and human rights – access to remedy

Business activity affects not just customers, employees, and contractors along supply chains, but often entire communities and the environment. This makes it vital that every business complies with human rights. This comparative report looks at the realities victims face when they seek redress for business-related human rights abuses. It presents the findings of fieldwork research on the views of professionals regarding the different ways people can pursue complaints. The findings highlight that obstacles to achieving justice are often multi-layered.
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What?

This project looks at obstacles and promising practices in relation to access to remedies for victims of business-related human rights abuses. By analysing complaints mechanisms in selected EU Member States, this research maps what hinders and what facilitates access to remedies.

Why?

Business has an increasing impact on human rights. This is being reflected globally in human rights instruments and in the EU in relation to internal market and trade discussions. The Council of the EU has noted that more work is particularly needed in relation to access to remedies. The Council asked FRA to work in this area, calling for an Opinion, which the Agency delivered in 2017. In 2017, the European Commission requested FRA to follow up with this project.

How?

In the first phase of the project, FRA undertook desk research through FRANET (FRA's multidisciplinary research network) on available remedies in all EU Member States, focusing on complaints avenues available for victims of human rights abuses. In addition, the two states that currently have observer status with FRA’s Management Board (North Macedonia and Republic of Serbia) have been added.

To bring a more concrete perspective to the desk research conducted to date, FRA’s data collection is being supplemented by a limited fieldwork research via expert interviews in 6 EU Member States (Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Additional interviews will be conducted in France and the Netherlands. The field research captures more hands-on experiences of persons involved in facilitating access to remedy, such as lawyers and experts who have extensive practical experience of litigation or non-judicial mechanisms, in cases of business-related human rights abuses.

The research will lead to a comparative overview of what seems to work and what is missing in terms of access to justice in relation to business abuses of human rights with a view to identifying possible actions in the EU, to be published in 2020. A short overview of the findings from the first phase will be available in December 2019. The project is undertaken in cooperation with the European Law Institute (ELI) (link is external).

The project is undertaken in cooperation with the European Law Institute (ELI).

 

 

See also

Improving access to remedy in the area of business and human rights at the EU level

10
April
2017
The Council of the EU requested this FRA Opinion in its Conclusions on business and human rights. The expert opinion sought from FRA was to look at “possible avenues to lower barriers for access to remedy at the EU level” – the third of three pillars of the UN Guiding Principles.
European Law Institute - Business and human rights

Severe labour exploitation – workers’ perspectives

The project looks at the experiences and views of foreign workers in selected EU countries who have experienced criminal forms of labour exploitation. It fills an important gap by extending the evidence beyond the views of professionals who deal with labour exploitation; this was covered in an earlier project.

Severe labour exploitation: workers moving within or into the European Union

2
June
2015
Worker exploitation is not an isolated or marginal phenomenon. But despite its pervasiveness in everyday life, severe labour exploitation and its adverse effects on third-country nationals and EU citizens - as workers, but also as consumers - have to date not received much attention from researchers.