Last week American University’s Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law hosted an event to discuss the response of business to the UN Guiding Principles. Three years after Ruggie’s Guiding Principles received such a warm embrace from the international community, it’s time to examine the new state of play.

The event, co-sponsored by the International Bar Association, sought to share insights on progress to date, identify best practices and consider projections for the future of the Guiding Principles.

Senior manager for corporate responsibility at Hess Corporation, Gabriella Herzog, presented a corporate perspective from the energy sector, and Foley Hoag‘s Sara Altschuller brought a legal angle to the discussion.

Mark Wielga, with NomoGaia, was well positioned to comment on progress to date, as we have been developing a database tracking corporate human rights policies as businesses adopt the language of the Guiding Principles to commit to “respect” for human rights, the execution of “human rights due diligence” and the provision of “access to remedy” for individuals whose rights are negatively impacted by corporate actions. An overarching finding is that progress is slow.

The consistent message of all speakers was that many companies are actively confronting and determining how to create structures to implement the Guiding Principles, but that this construction is slow and challenging. The efficacy of the processes and actions overall remain uncertain, but the clear momentum is toward acceptance of the Guiding Principles in large, transnational corporations.