The International Bar Association (IBA) published the second edition of its Business and Human Rights Guidance for Bar Associations (November 2024). The guidance was unanimously adopted by the IBA Council and is an update of its earlier guidance from 2015. It is intended as a complement to the IBA’s November 2023 guidance note on The Role of Lawyers in the Changing Landscape (November 2023).
Human Level’s Take:
- More and more law firms and in-house counsel are reshaping the role of lawyers in business by embracing human rights due diligence as a core part of legal advice—breaking free from the outdated view of lawyers as barriers to respecting human rights
- The IBA’s Business and Human Rights Guidance for Bar Associations highlights this shift, showing how lawyers are moving beyond legal compliance to help businesses navigate emerging human rights laws and soft law standards like the UNGPs.
- This includes advising on human rights impacts across areas like criminal law, environmental law, corporate governance and labour law to help clients identify and manage human rights risks. It also means meeting their own responsibility to respect human rights, including by not enabling corporate human rights abuses.
- Bar associations have a pivotal role here, providing education, technical support, and advocacy to equip lawyers with the tools to integrate human rights into their practice.
- In an evolving legal landscape, lawyers and bar associations are stepping up as key players in embedding respect for human rights into business—driving change from the courtroom to the boardroom. And this guidance from the IBA will help them do that.
Some key takeaways:
- Why lawyers are an important piece of the BHR puzzle: The UN Business and Human Rights Working Group noted in 2018 that business lawyers, both in-house and external, can uniquely influence how companies approach human rights due diligence. However, lawyers are often seen as obstacles to implementing effective human rights practices due to their traditional focus on legal risk to the business, as opposed to risk to people. Despite this, law firms and in-house counsel are increasingly recognising the importance of integrating human rights due diligence into their legal advice. The IBA Guidance for Bar Associations has three main objectives: (1) raise awareness of the UNGPs’ relevance in business transactions, (2) provide guidance and technical support to lawyers on using the UNGPs, and (3) position the legal profession as champions of business and human rights by engaging in initiatives that promote human rights protection and business accountability.
- The role of lawyers in ensuring respect for human rights: Lawyers, like their corporate clients, are navigating a new landscape of business and human rights laws and expectations. Companies now expect lawyers to provide guidance not only on compliance with existing human rights laws but also on broader “soft law” standards, including the UNGPs. Lawyers are also expected to advise on human rights impacts across a range of traditional legal areas—such as criminal law, environmental law, corporate governance and labour law—to help clients identify and manage human rights risks. In this way, lawyers can fulfill the role of ‘wise counsellor’ by adapting to the changing context and integrating advice on human rights risks into their counsel. Lawyers are also expected to promote the rule of law, which includes considering normative, soft law standards like the UNGPs. In addition, lawyers can serve their clients well by providing advice on risks the client does not know or, as the guidance puts it, “might prefer not to know.” To meet their own responsibility to respect human rights, lawyers will need to avoid enabling human rights abuses by their clients, like creating shell corporations to shield individuals or companies from human rights litigation or supporting SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) lawsuits used to intimidate and silence opposition to business practices.
- The role of bar associations: The guidance lays out six areas where bar associations can play a role in supporting legal practitioners to fulfill their responsibility to respect human rights. Bar associations can: (1) Develop a sustainable strategy that includes a structure (like a committee or working group) to manage and engage with lawyers on the topic of business and human rights (BHR), and that has clear objectives and milestones for delivery of the strategy. (2) Conduct awareness raising for members about key BHR instruments and principles, establish and promote educational programmes and work to embed BHR knowledge at all stages of legal education. (3) Promote professional conduct that takes into account the ethical considerations of advising clients on human rights. (4) Provide guidance, technical assistance and examples of best practice to help legal professionals advise clients effectively on BHR. (5) Provide recognition and incentives for strong practice by legal professionals in the area of business and human rights. (6) Seek to further BHR principles in domestic policy and legislation, as well as in global and industry-specific principles and standards on business and human rights.
