B-Tech Project

The B-Tech Project provides authoritative guidance and resources for implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights (UNGPs) in the technology space. In 2019, UN Human Rights launched the project after consultations with civil society, business, States, and other experts about the scope of the B-Tech Project.

The B-Tech project is structured along four strategic focus areas:

• Focus Area 1: Addressing Human Rights Risks in Business Models
• Focus Area 2: Human Rights Due Diligence and End-Use
• Focus Area 3: Accountability and Remedy
• Focus Area 4: “A Smart Mix of Measures”: Exploring regulatory and policy responses to human rights challenges linked to digital technologies

Adding to this, the project also explores the responsibilities of investors in the technology space, as a cross-cutting theme.

Generative AI Project

An intensifying global momentum around Generative AI innovations is sparking key debates on what constitutes responsible business conduct in the technology sector. Against this backdrop, B-Tech has launched the Generative AI project which seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) can guide more effective understanding, mitigations and governance of the risks of generative artificial intelligence (“generative AI”).

• Post-event Summary - UN B-Tech Generative AI Summit, 30 November 2023
• UN B-Tech Generative AI Summit: Advancing Rights-Based Governance and Business Practice, Geneva, 30 November 2023
  • Opening statement by High Commissioner Volker Türk
• OHCHR B-Tech Note regarding the United Nations' plan towards AI Governance at the UN General Assembly 78, September 2023
• OHCHR B-Tech Summary note GenAI multi-stakeholder roundtable, San Francisco, June 2023
• Series of B-Tech GenAI papers:
  • Headlines and Recommendations from the GenAI B-Tech Foundational paper
  • Advancing Responsible Development and Deployment of Generative AI. A UN B-Tech foundational paper
  • Taxonomy of Generative AI Human Rights Harms, a B-Tech Gen AI Project supplement
  • Overview of Human Rights and Responsible AI Company Practice, a B-Tech Gen AI Project supplement
• AI, Human Rights, and the Evolving Regulatory Environment, Workshop by B-Tech and GNI, Brussels, October 2023, summary note

Documents

Project documents

• Scoping paper (final version)
• Key trends and takeaways from the public consultation process on the draft scoping paper
• B-Tech Project's overview
• B-Tech FAQ on business engagement
• B-Tech CSO engagement note
• B-Tech Africa Project summary note
• B-Tech India Project summary note

Foundational papers

As part of on-going consultation with key stakeholders, the B-Tech Project has published foundational papers. These papers are written for leaders from across the technology sector, investor community, civil society, and government seeking to understand the key features of the UNGPs. The series is being released to frame discussions among diverse stakeholders as part of a global process to produce guidance, tools and practical recommendations to advance implementation of the UNGPs in the technology sector.

• Addressing Business Model Related Human Rights Risks
• An Introduction to the UN Guiding Principles in the Age of Technology
• Key Characteristics of Business Respect for Human Rights
• Identifying Human Rights Risks Related to End-Use
• Taking Action to Address Human Rights Risks Related to End-Use
• Access to remedy and the technology sector: basic concepts and principles
• Access to remedy and the technology sector: a "remedy ecosystem" approach
• Designing and implementing effective company-based grievance mechanisms
• Access to remedy and the technology sector: understanding the perspectives and needs of affected people and groups
• Bridging Governance Gaps in the Age of Technology – Key Characteristics of the State Duty to Protect

Briefings

• Rights-Respecting Investment in Technology Companies

Blog posts

• Blog post on the response of technology companies to the attack on the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021
• Blog post by GANHRI on public policy and digital technologies: The role of National Human Rights Institutions in achieving policy coherence
• Blog post on bridging the private equity gap to tackle tech business model risks
• Blog post by GNI on Empowering human rights in the State-business nexus: digital technologies and human rights due diligence
• Blog post on the Feasibility of Mandating Downstream Human Rights Due Diligence: Reflections from technology company practices
• Blog post by B-Tech and CDT Europe on Fostering responsible business conduct in the tech sector – the need for aligning risk assessment, transparency and stakeholder engagement provisions under the EU Digital Services Act with the UNGPs

Community of Practice

• B-Tech Community of Practice 2.0
• Reflections On the Status of Business Respect For Human Rights in the Technology Sector
• Strategic Aspects of Business Respect for Human Rights - Part One: Overview and Reflections on Current Practice
• Strategic Aspects of Business Respect for Human Rights - Part Two: Themes for Further Attention
• COP meeting with Special Rapporteurs
• COP 2022 Year-End Review
• B-Tech Peer Learning Platform
  • PLP Session #1: Summary note and slide deck
  • PLP Session #2: Summary note and slide deck
  • PLP Session #3: Summary note and slide deck
  • PLP Session #4: Summary note and slide deck
  • PLP Session #5: Summary note and slide deck
  • PLP Session #6: Summary note and slide deck

Investor track

• B-Tech Institutional Investor Business Models Tool

  This tool is part of B-Tech's ongoing workstream focusing on rights-respecting investment in technology companies. The tool is targeted to institutional investors who invest in mature technology companies (both public and private), with a specific focus on human rights risks linked to technology company business models. The tool's aim is to equip institutional investors to engage more deeply with technology companies on business model-related human rights risks.

  The tool provides a template for institutional investors to use in engaging technology companies on these business model risks. This template comes in the form of a series of "engagement questions" and a corresponding "evaluation framework" for institutional investors to use in assessing the quality of company responses received to those questions. This template is demonstrated via discussion of a series of specific business model features present in the tech sector that our team identified as carrying potential human rights risk. This guidance is the result of extensive consultation by B-Tech with civil society, investors, and technology companies.

  The B-Tech Project has developed a suite of VC guidance tools that help venture LPs and GPs understand how (1) technology startups can pose risks to human rights; (2) why these risks are material for investors; and (3) how investors can incorporate human rights into due diligence to simultaneously reduce human rights-related material risk and protect people from harm. These tools include:

  • Venture Capital, Technology Startups, and Human Rights: a Primer for General Partners and Limited Partners, which explains how startups can pose risks to human rights and why these risks are material for investors.
  • Human Rights Toolkit for Venture Capital General Partners, which provides GPs with a six-step framework for identifying startups’ human rights risks and helping startups address them.
  • Human Rights Toolkit for Venture Capital Limited Partners, which provides LPs with a six-step framework for identifying and addressing human rights risks linked to venture investments.

Stakeholder engagement

• Stakeholder engagement paper

This paper has emerged from the B-Tech Stakeholder Engagement Working Group, comprised of participants from civil society organizations and tech companies, all dedicated to enhancing the role of affected stakeholders in the design, development, and use of digital technologies. The Working Group discussed ways to improve the process of stakeholder engagement and through the participants' diverse perspectives, surfaced the five practices in the attached paper as suggestions for tech companies and affected stakeholders both to consider.

Gender, tech and the role of business

B-Tech’s new workstream on gender, digital tech and the role of business is building upon the momentum generated by the recently concluded Commission on the Status of Women’s 67th session, for which the priority theme was “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. The B-Tech Project plans to organize a series of multistakeholder consultations which will feed into the development of a B-Tech briefing paper providing guidance on gender and digital tech from a business and human rights perspective.

• B-Tech consultation on gender, tech and the role of business in San Francisco, 15^th June 2024

  Taking a global approach, the consultation discussed some key considerations relevant to understanding the implications of the UNGPs for technology companies’ responsibility to respect (and States’ duty to protect) on women’s and girls’ rights, explored how the UNGPs framework connects with existing tools and resources for the ICT industry on assessing and mitigating impacts on women and girls (and to highlight any gaps); started to identify outstanding knowledge gaps or other barriers to fully incorporating gender issues within this field. The concept note and agenda for the consultation is here.

• Way forward towards a briefing paper on gender, tech and the role of business 
  
  With a view to contribute to a briefing paper on gender, tech and the role of business, a call for inputs was issued and submissions were received until 15 February 2024. There will be another opportunity to contribute to the paper at the time of the release of a draft later this year. 

CHILDREN, TECH AND THE ROLE OF BUSINESS

To look at the impact of digital technologies on children’s rights, the B-Tech project has been partnering with UNICEF for the development of a draft briefing paper on identifying and addressing technology company business activities’ adverse impacts on children’s rights. Submissions were received until 13 March 2024

The draft paper being edited after consultations and will be forthcoming.

UNGPs Compass

The UNGP compass (forthcoming release) points out how the business and human rights lens can inform efforts to govern corporate conduct in AI and the tech sector more broadly. As an evidence-based guidance tool, it aims at assisting policymakers in aligning regulation targeting technology company conduct with the UNGPs.

B-Tech Africa project

Under the Africa component of the B-Tech Project, UN Human Rights engages strategically with technology company operators, investors, civil society, States, and other key digital economy stakeholders across Africa in a set of African economies and their tech hubs to create awareness of implementing the UNGPs on BHR

• B-Tech Africa Project summary note 

• Events:

  • B-Tech Africa Workshop with NHRIs (online)
    31 October 2023
    - Concept note and agenda 
    - Summary note 
  • B-Tech Africa Nairobi consultation (Nairobi)
    26 October 2023
    - Concept note and agenda - Summary note 
  • B-Tech Africa NGO Forum ACHPR (Arusha and online)
    16 October 2023
    - Concept note and agenda - Summary note 
  • B-Tech Africa Kick-Off Event – Developing the framework for responsible tech in Africa (Cape Town, South Africa)
    28-30 March 2023
    - Concept note and agenda - Summary note 
  • B-Tech Africa Stakeholder Engagement – Developing the framework for responsible tech in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya)
    17 February 2023
    - Concept note and agenda 
  • African Business and Human Rights Forum in Accra, Ghana (Accra and hybrid)
    11-13 October 2022
    - Summary note 

   

Interpretive advice

• OHCHR response to request from Danwatch for advice regarding the application of the UNGPs in the context of the export of military software

Other publications

• Harvard Carr Center Discussion Paper "Fostering Business Respect for Human Rights in AI Governance and Beyond: A Compass for Policymakers to Align Tech Regulation with the UNGPs"
• Research Brief by the Geneva Academy and B-Tech “Regulating Business Conduct in the Technology Sector: Gaps and Ways Forward in Applying the UNGPs”
• Human Rights Council Report on the practical application of the UNGPs to the activities of technology companies (A/HRC/50/56) and its Addendum (A/HRC/50/56/Add.1)
   

Event, meetings, etc.

This section includes certain events and other types of meetings related to the B-Tech Project and in which OHCHR took part or is planning to take part, and which can be made public. If you would like to notify the B-Tech Project team of, or invite us to, relevant events, or propose organizing an event with us, please contact ohchr-B-techproject@un.org.

Newsletter

• Volume 1, September 2020
• Volume 1, February 2021
• Volume 2, May 2021
• Volume 3, November 2021
• Volume 4, December 2021
• Volume 5, September 2022
• Volume 6, December 2022
• Volume 7, November 2023
• Volume 8, December 2023 
• Volume 9, August 2024

For any questions or comments or further information regarding the B-tech project, please contact OHCHR-B-techproject@un.org. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Video

UN Human Rights B-Tech: Panel discussion on Human Rights risks in tech business models