Summary

In this report, submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to Council resolutions 17/4 and 35/7, the Working Group on business and human rights highlights the differentiated and disproportionate impact of business activities on women and girls. It develops a gender framework for the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The report also proposes gender guidance specific to each of the 31 guiding principles. Both States and business enterprises should consider the gender framework and guidance set out in the present report and the annex thereto in implementing the Guiding Principles.

Access the guidance on the gender lens to the UNGPs.

Read more on the Working Group’s project to unpack the gender dimension of the UNGPs.

See the submissions to the Report.

Consultations

The Working Group convened consultations in different parts of the world from 2017 to 2019 to achieve the project objectives.

The first multi-stakeholder consultation on 30 November 2017 in Geneva brought together several relevant stakeholders engaged with women rights generally or working in the BHR field to brainstorm collectively on how to accomplish the project objectives. [Summary of Geneva consultation]

The Working Group’s Asia consultation was hosted by Ashoka University’s Genpact Centre for Women’s Leadership (GCWL), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Asia-Pacific and UN Women, in February 2018 in India. The consultation brought together about 150 participants from more than 30 countries. [Summary of Asia consultation].

The Working Group in collaboration with the OHCHR Regional Office for the Pacific hosted a consultation in Suva, Fiji, on 30 April 2018. Apart from UN agencies, CSOs and businesses, Hon. Mereseini Vuniwaqa, the Minister for Women, Children & Poverty Alleviation of Fiji, participated in this consultation.

The Working Group’s Africa consultation was held in Nairobi in October 2018. It was co-hosted by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies of University of the Witwatersrand (CALS), Hivos Foundation, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA) and the OHCHR. [Summary of Africa consultation]

The Working Group’s Australia consultation was held in Sydney on 14-15 November 2018. It was co-hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Australian Human Rights Institute, and RMIT University’s Centre for People, Organisation and Work (CPOW). [Summary of Australia consultation]

In collaboration with Geneva Academy and the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Working Group organized a multi-stakeholder expert consultation on 31 January and 1 February 2019 in Geneva. The aim of this consultation was to apply input received during various regional consultations to develop gender guidance for each of the 31 Principles of the UNGPs. [Summary of Multi-stakeholder expert consultation]

The Working Group’s Latin America consultation (Spanish only) was held in Mexico City on 21-22 February 2019. It was co-hosted by a number of stakeholders including UNICEF, ONUWOMEN, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, among others. [Summary of Latin America Consultation]