The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights : Putting Accounting for Human Rights into Practice

The “Guiding Principles on\ud Business and Human Rights:\ud Implementing the United Nations\ud ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy\ud Framework’” (the Guiding\ud Principles), endorsed by The\ud United Nations Human Rights\ud Council on 16 June 2011, outline\ud obligations for nation states that\ud currently exist under\ud international law and provide the\ud first authoritative reference point\ud for corporations’ human rights\ud responsibilities.\ud Of the 30 principles endorsed, half relate directly to business. The Guiding Principles have\ud far-reaching implications for all businesses, both small and large, and represent one of\ud the most significant developments in corporate governance this century.\ud In response to a recognition of the potential impacts of the Guiding Principles on\ud corporate governance, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia provided La\ud Trobe Business School with grant funding to undertake groundbreaking research on the\ud implications of the Guiding Principles for management and accounting systems within\ud corporate Australia. This report represents the outcome of the study