UN Forum series – monitoring compliance with the UN guiding principles in conflict zones

This post was contributed by Wendy Betts, Project Director at eyeWitness to Atrocities. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), in urging businesses to avoid causing or contributing to human rights violations and urging states to address business involvement in human rights violations, identify the heightened risk for gross violations in conflict-affected areas. Indeed, businesses increasingly have come under scrutiny, legal or otherwise, for their conduct in conflict zones that may have contributed to human rights abuses or even war crimes (readers can find several examples here, here and here).