Value proposition

The leading international think tank working to make human rights part of everyday business.

Companies can both positively and negatively impact the lives of their staff, the workers in their supply chains, the communities around their operations, and society more widely. Many of these negative impacts – large and small – are avoidable. If every business understood how its actions could undermine respect for human rights and took proactive steps to prevent their impacts, the world would be a different place. Responsible business prevents potential harms, ensures accountability and delivers lasting value.

Founded in 2009, IHRB is the leading international think tank on business and human rights. IHRB’s mission is to shape policy, advance practice and strengthen accountability in order to make respect for human rights part of everyday business.

Since its founding, IHRB has established a number of organisations and initiatives that are now free-standing, namely: the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), Centro Regional de Empresas y Emprendimientos Responsables (CREER) in Colombia, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), and the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR).

IHRB's focus areas are diverse and reflect the most salient and emerging human rights issues facing business, including: the ubiquitous contribution of migrant workers across global supply chains; ensuring "just transitions" for workers and communities in the adaptation to low-carbon economies; improving efforts to address inequality, mass migration, and climate change through better decision making across the built environment lifecycle; and developing an overarching human rights framework for shipping companies, their investors, and business customers to raise standards and encourage best practice throughout the ship lifecycle; amongst others.

Migrant Workers and Work with Dignity, Information & Communications Technology, Mega-Sporting Events, Benchmarking, Extractives and Commodities, Sector-Wide Impact Assessments, Finance and Human Rights, Myanmar, Colombia, Shipping, Sport, Built Environment, Just Transitions, and Climate Justice