Stage 6 - Providing for or Cooperating in Remediation When Appropriate

A company should provide for or cooperate in ensuring effective remedy where it has caused or contributed to a negative human rights impact. In cases where a company has not directly caused or contributed to an impact (see section on Commodity Trading and Human Rights Responsibilities), but there is a direct link through the business relationship, it is not required to provide remediation itself (although it may still choose to do so). However, the company still has a responsibility to use its leverage with business partners involved to seek to prevent or mitigate the risk of such impacts continuing or recurring (see Commentary to UNGP 22, and Commodity Trading and Human Rights Responsibilities for examples).

If a company contests allegations that it has caused or contributed to an adverse impact, it will not be obligated to provide for remediation itself unless and until it is required to do so (for instance, by a court) (see UNGPs Interpretive Guide p.66-67).

Remedy can take place through judicial processes or through non-judicial processes. It may also be provided through an “operational-level grievance mechanism” (see ii. Design effective operational grievance mechanisms). Complainants should be free to choose which available channels they wish to use. Considerations on the effectiveness of courts and on the complexity of the administrative mechanisms of a state affect the choice of options for addressing human rights impacts. The UNGPs Interpretive Guide on the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights lists a series of mechanisms that may exist and be appropriate for providing remediation if a company cannot or should not do so itself:

• the courts;
• State ombudsman or complaints offices;
• a labour standards office;
• a National Contact Point (in the context of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises);
• a national human rights institution (NHRI);
• any other state-administered or statutory body empowered to take on this kind of role;
• local, traditional mechanisms used by indigenous or other communities;
• a multi-stakeholder initiative (if complaints involve a supplier or contractor to more than one of its corporate members);
• complaint mechanisms of labels or standards.