ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main aspects of human rights due diligence from a theoretical and operational perspective. It explains the aim of human rights due diligence, its focus on preventing risk to society, and how it differs from transactional due diligence, such as financial or legal liability due diligence that aims at protecting the organization against risk. The chapter elaborates operational aspects of human rights due diligence as a management process to identify and manage harmful impacts. Human rights due diligence process should uncover human rights risks in which the company is involved, and generate appropriate and effective responses. The first step in a company's risk assessment should be identifying the most severe risks to people. Governmental agencies, too, need to consider human rights due diligence. Meaningful engagement with affected stakeholders is a core source of information for enterprises to understand their impacts and the implications for those potentially or actually affected.
