The Implementation of U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Some Reflections on European and US Experiences

The debate oncorporate human rights abuses and, in general, onthe relationship between business and human rights has seen an important development in 2011, after the unanimous endorsement of the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the U.N. Human Rights Council. The U.N. Guiding Principles are an innovative international instrument aiming at: (i) creating a minimum common knowledge base; (ii) ensuring the legitimacy of the mandate process; (iii) bringing new players to the table; and (iv) working toward convergence among standard setting bodies1. Briefly, UNGPs intend to be an international recognized standard on business and human rights for both states and corporations. Still, three years after their endorsement, what is the effective role that they have played in states’ approach to business and human rights issues? This paper aims to verify the UNGPs level of implementation by states. In the first part, it analyses the National Action Plans (NAPs) adopted by some European Member Statesand setting integrated and comprehensive policies on the UNGPs implementation. In the second part, it deals with the U.S. norm on conflict minerals as an example of national mandatory rule referring to international standards on business and human rights.