1 taking to address them is part of ‘knowing and showing’ that a company is taking steps to respect human rights. 42 Table 3: The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies are expected to respect human rights. That means companies should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and address negative impacts with which they are involved. In order to be able to ‘know and show’ that they are indeed avoiding negative impacts on human rights, companies should take the following steps: • • • Adopt a policy commitment that commits the company to respecting human rights (this may be a standalone commitment or integrated with other commitments to responsible business conduct) Carry out human rights due diligence (which can be integrated into other types of due diligence procedures that assess and manage the company’s impacts on society and the environment). 43 This includes: • Identifying and assessing actual and potential human rights impacts • Acting on and integrating the assessment findings into a management plan for operations • Tracking and monitoring performance in managing impacts • Communicating that performance to relevant stakeholders Providing or cooperating in remedying actual impacts caused or contributed to either through the company’s own grievance mechanism or other grievance mechanisms (including judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, whether statebased or non-state based) Key Points for Human Rights Due Diligence Companies conducting human rights due diligence in Myanmar should note that: • Situations and operations change. Due diligence should be an on-going activity, carried out particularly before new activities or business relationships commence or the surrounding context alters. There should be continuous assessment of potential impacts during the full lifecycle of operations or a company’s role in operational activities. • Human rights due diligence should be built on a recognition that different types of activities can have quite distinct impacts on different human rights and can affect different groups, or some individuals within certain groups differently. For example, impacts can be more severe where individuals or groups are marginalised or at risk (see Chapter 4.8 on Groups at Risk in Myanmar). 44 • The current fluidity in the national legal framework is another reason why all companies should look to international standards as an anchor for their social, human 42 See the International Chamber of Commerce, “Guidelines for International Investment” (2012) that call on businesses to respect human rights in line with the UN Guiding Principles, pg. 18. 43 See, European Commission, “ICT Sector Guide on Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” (2013). 44 To see some indicative examples of impacts on different stakeholders during different ICT activities, see: European Commission, “ICT Sector Guide on Implementing the UN Guiding Principles” (2013), pg 10. 50 PAGE CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION