Impact Assessment
Overview: Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Framework The Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Framework enables a company to identify and assess the human rights risks and impacts of its business activities. Inclusive engagement underpins the HRIA process. Without including the voices and perspectives of rights-holders, a company cannot gain a 360-degree understanding of its human rights impact. Moreover, it is critical that the company engages with individuals and communities throughout the HRIA process.
HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
Inclusive Engagement 1 Scope and Prepare
2 Identify Human Rights Risks
There are four key stages to the HRIA Process: (1) Scope, (2) Identify, (3) Assess and (4) Integrate and Implement. In the scoping phase, the company must define the boundaries for the HRIA. The company should decide: E Why the HRIA is being conducted? E Who will perform the HRIA? E Where will the HRIA be performed geographically? E When can the HRIA be performed? How long will it take? Next, the company will dive into identifying human rights risks. In this phase, the HRIA team must
3 Assess Human Rights Impact
4 Integrate and Implement
gather data to determine the human rights risks in the business activities, the business relationships, the industry and the geographic context. Once human rights risks are identified, the company will assess the identified human rights risks for possible impacts and consequences. In this phase, the company will determine the severity, likelihood, scale and remediability of human rights risks. Once an HRIA is performed, the company should move into integrating and implementing its findings. The steps for this phase are covered in the Erb Institute Business and Human Rights Implementation Toolbox.
BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS TOOLKIT | MARCH 2016
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