Abstract

International organizations and standards provide guidelines for private companies within states to regulate and sanction business activity to curb climate change and human rights related impacts that may arise. The most significant instrument of this nature being the 2011 United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs). From a legal perspective, the GPs are not very helpful in the prevention of climate-change-related human rights impacts by corporations. This is because the GPs have not been legally binding or enforceable on both the private business entities or the states. In 2019 India began working on a National Action Plan (NAP) to align corporate practices to the UNGPs Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and has also released the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC). These actions by the Government emphasize the importance of the engagement of the private sector in India’s SDGs commitment. Business serves an essential role as a source of finance, as a driver of innovation and technological development and as a key engine of economic growth and employment. In such a backdrop, we aim to evaluate the ways in which the present CSR mechanism can incorporate UNGPs and the principles provided under India’s own NGRBC.

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