The global discourse on the responsibility of the business sector to uphold human rights has been rapidly growing in the last decade thanks to strong advocacy from civil society, investor interest, consumer pressure, and regulatory demands.

More and more forward-looking companies are responding to this call by adopting human rights policies, engaging in human rights due diligence (HRDD), and implementing operational-level grievance mechanisms. In doing so, they have turned to the standards contained in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the most authoritative and widely adopted set of principles for responsible business, endorsed in 2011.

This is happening alongside a growing trend of leading economies giving effect to the UNGPs by adopting mandatory due diligence norms that require businesses to identify, prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts of their operations on people.

In the last three years, the Government of Japan has been at the forefront of this discourse in Asia. In 2020 it adopted a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, and Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains were launched in September 2022.

To support the growing interest of Japanese business actors to build their capacity in carrying out HRDD, and in support of more responsible global supply chains, UNDP has partnered with the Government of Japan to support the implementation of the UNGPs in Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Viet Nam.