Pillar I

Legal Obligations

Around the world, governments are turning voluntary “good practice” on human rights into legal obligations. Laws such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the United States, new supply-chain due diligence laws in Europe, and transparency rules in Canada and elsewhere all rely on the same core idea: Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD), the process companies use to identify, prevent and address how their operations, supply chains and investments affect people’s rights. By making HRDD mandatory, states are signalling that it is no longer enough to have a policy on paper—companies must be able to “know and show” that they are not profiting from abuse. These laws also require that companies contribute to remediation where harms occur. For more on remedy, see the Pillar III page.

Laws are made enforceable through regulations. Governments face a difficult task of identifying a regulatory body and defining regulatory actions for governing corporate behavior. The regulatory bodies need to be empowered to carry out their work, resourced to enforce violations, and staffed with experts.

Nomogaia supports these efforts in two ways.

First, we publish freely available examples of human rights due diligence, which regulators can use as references to understand what is duly diligent and what is insufficient. These are available at this link. Second we do research to support effective statutory language and regulatory actions that can govern each phase of due diligence, from risk mapping, to impact evaluation, to meaningful engagement with impacted rightsholders, to remediation and monitoring.

Map the Risk

Screen operations, portfolios and suppliers to see where severe human rights risks are most likely, based on industry, geography and who is most vulnerable.

This Explanation

01

Assess Real-World Impacts

Where risk profiles are elevated, regulators can require access to documentation that demonstrates how companies are evaluating their impacts on affected people. This is a significant gap in current corporate human rights reporting – regulators can address the systemic problem of companies linking risks to remedies without evaluating on-the-ground impacts and tailoring remedies to verified harms.

Explanation, Analysis and Recommendations

02

Evaluate Meaningful Engagemen

Companies are tasked to “meaningfully engage” with rightsholders about the impacts they experience. Regulators can assess the quality of this engagement through internal protocols

Meaningful Engagement

03

Act, Track and Improve

Indicators to track the remediation of identified impacts can be vetted by regulators, to assure that what is measured and managed results in reduction of harms.

Remedy

04

Legal Obligations in Action

Around the world, voluntary “good practice” on human rights is becoming hard law. New due-diligence and transparency rules require companies to carry out Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) and “know and show” they are not profiting from abuse. NomoGaia supports regulators and companies with practical HRDD examples and draft regulatory language for every step of due diligence—from mapping risks and assessing impacts to engaging affected people and tracking remediation.