The UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises submitted its report to the UN Human Rights Council on protecting and respecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in the context of business activities (October 2024). This report clarifies what it means to fully implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) with a gender lens by expanding the focus to the rights of LGBTI+ persons.
Human Level’s Take
- For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) persons, discrimination, harassment, violence and exclusion are widespread, often intensified by other forms of discrimination like race, disability or migratory status.
- Yet corporate actions in this field are often not meaningful. Corporate initiatives often highlight the positive impact that businesses can have on LGBTI+ individuals, rather than emphasising a responsibility to respect their rights. These initiatives tend to be limited to the workplace, with less attention to LGBTI+ rights in the labour market and throughout company supply chains. Additionally, policies established at headquarters may not be enforced in regions where legal or cultural attitudes are hostile toward the LGBTI+ community.
- Furthermore, there is often a lack of focus on the unique needs of different groups within the LGBTI+ community, along with minimal tracking of the effectiveness of commitments made to respect their rights. LGBTI+ rights are typically handled by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) teams within companies, which means these measures are rarely integrated across the entire organisation.
- The UN Working Group outlines in its recent report how the UNGPs offer a clear, actionable path for companies to respect LGBTI+ people that goes beyond mere symbolic inclusion. This includes ensuring that the DEI team collaborates closely with the human rights, procurement, legal affairs, compliance, government affairs, public policy and social performance departments, integrating their actions across all relevant functions. This also includes fostering collaboration and partnerships with other businesses, industry organisations, LGBTI+ rights groups and experts to navigate discriminatory environments, gain contextual understanding, assess impact, and apply collective influence. The UN Guiding Principles and the human rights due diligence it provides for are key tools to help companies advance, and in particular when managing conflicting legal requirements in regions with LGBTI+ discrimination.
- This is not just "nice to have" – it's essential for businesses committed to upholding human rights and staying compliant in today’s regulatory landscape.
For More
- The challenges: The rights of LGBTI+ persons are disproportionately and differently affected by business activities. For instance, LGBTI+ persons face discrimination, violence, harassment, attacks and stigmitisation in the workplace. Intersectional discrimination, with compounding factors such as race, ethnicity, disability, age, migratory status, family status, nationality, religion, health status and class, means that people within the LGBTI+ community experience these risks in very different ways. For example, a 2018 survey carried out in the UK found that 3% of white LGBTI+ workers had experienced physical harassment or assault, compared with 10% of LGBTI+ workers who were black or from minority ethnicities. In addition, LGBTI+ persons are overrepresented in the informal economy, trapped in low-quality jobs and obliged to work in certain economic sectors in stereotyped roles. To date, actions taken by businesses to promote equality, non-discrimination and inclusion are rarely grounded in the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Moreover, they have not implemented the same approach to LGBTI+ persons when operating in jurisdictions where same-sex relationships are criminalised.
- Progress and gaps in the implementation of the UNGPs: Under the UNGPs, there is an expectation that businesses avoid causing, contributing or being directly linked to human rights abuses against LGBTI+ people through their direct activities or business relationships. While some companies have made progress on this topic – for instance by adopting non-discriminatory policies with explicit mention of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics – progress is still limited. Rather than focusing on the corporate responsibility to respect the rights of LGBTI+ persons, corporate initiatives typically focus on the positive impact that businesses have on LGBTI+ people. Initiatives are also confined to the workplace and less has been done on LGBTI+ rights in the labour market, in the communities where companies operate, and in their supply chains. In addition, policies adopted at headquarters to respect the rights of LGBTI+ persons may not be implemented in locations where the legal or cultural environment is hostile towards this community. There is also a lack of distinction between different groups within the LGBTI+ community to address their specific issues, and a lack of tracking to measure the effectiveness of actions or commitments adopted to respect the rights of LGBTI+ persons. Moreover, LGBTI+ rights are typically the remit of the diversity, equity and inclusion teams in companies, which means that measures taken are not always implemented across the entire business.
- What can companies do: The UN Working Group recommends that businesses take the following actions (these have been taken directly from the report):
- Ensure that actions intended to promote the inclusion of LGBTI+ persons are in line with businesses' responsibility to respect human rights, and that such actions are extended to all LGBTI+ persons they may have adverse impacts on, including through their operations, products and services, and via their supply chains and business relationships
- Ensure the coherence of existing policies and processes so that they are applied consistently across all activities, wherever their operations may be
- Make a public commitment to respect the rights of LGBTI+ persons at the highest level
- Ensure that the board of directors has oversight and accountability for human rights risk management
- Ensure that the diversity, equity and inclusion team works closely with the human rights, procurement, legal affairs, compliance, government affairs and public policy, and social performance departments, and mainstream their actions across all relevant functions
- Adopt and update internal policies on human rights, with an explicit mention of businesses’ responsibility to respect the human rights of LGBTI+ persons in their own activities and across the supply chain, and explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. Update diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the light of human rights standards and the UNGPs. Adopt those policies at the highest level with adequate resources and implement them across the different relevant social performance functions
- Implement gender-responsive human rights due diligence, including an LGBTI+ lens, with a sound understanding of the context of the operations, services and business relationships and through meaningful engagement with LGBTI+ persons, organisations defending their rights and trade unions
- Seek collaboration and partnership, including with other businesses, business organisations, organisations working on LGBTI+ rights and other experts, on how to navigate discriminatory environments, understand the context and impact, and exert leverage
- Take differentiated and tailored actions recognizing the diversity of the LGBTI+ community and the intersecting discrimination LGBTI+ persons may face, in the context of businesses’ human rights due diligence processes
- Collect and manage data about LGBTI+ persons in a safe and confidential way, in line with existing guidance from UN human rights mechanisms
- Use the UNGPs, in particular the human rights due diligence framework, to identify a suitable approach to uphold businesses’ responsibility to respect human rights while navigating conflicting legal requirements when operating in contexts that discriminate against LGBTI+ persons
- Seek to resolve any adverse human rights impacts they may have caused or contributed to by actively engaging in remediation mechanisms, either alone or in cooperation with other legitimate processes. This includes establishing effective operational-level grievance mechanisms that are open to all affected stakeholders and that address the specific challenges faced by LGBTI+ persons. These mechanisms should comply with the effectiveness criteria outlined in Guiding Principle 31 and should be designed in collaboration with relevant stakeholders
- Support and invest in capacity-building programmes to ensure that their workers, officers and business relationships respect the human rights of LGBTI+ persons
- Support the work of LGBTI+ human rights defenders and demonstrate zero tolerance towards reprisals and attacks against these actors
