ICESCR concluding observations 2025, paragraph 11
Plain English recommendation
Government should:
(a) Introduce laws that make businesses check for and stop human rights abuses across their work (due diligence), including in organisations they work with. This law should ensure that companies are held responsible if they violate people’s economic, social or cultural rights, and should also ensure that victims, including people who aren’t citizens, have effective access to remedies. This should be done in line with UN advice on government obligations in the context of business. As a priority, the government should require human rights due diligence to be carried out in industries that have caused issues or concerns in other countries, especially in the financial and banking sectors;
(b) Update the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, taking into account the 2016 guidance on national action plans on business and human rights made by the United Nations Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Original UN recommendation
Recalling its previous recommendation, the Committee urges the State Party, along with the devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales:
(a) To establish a legal framework requiring businesses to conduct human rights due diligence, ensuring accountability for violations of economic, social and cultural rights in their operations and supply chains, both domestically and abroad, and guaranteeing effective access to remedies for victims, including non-nationals in the State Party, and to be guided by the Committee’s general comment No. 24 (2017) on State obligations under the Covenant in the context of business activities. As a matter of priority, the State Party should require mandatory human rights due diligence in sectors that have caused extraterritorial impacts and concerns, particularly the financial and banking services;
(b) To update its National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, taking into account the 2016 guidance on national action plans on business and human rights of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Date of UN examination
12/03/2025
Original UN document
Download the original ICESCR concluding observations 2025 on the UN website.
Last updated on 21/08/2025