UN FORUM SERIES – measuring progress: lawyers and climate change

This blog was contributed by Sara Seck, Associate Professor, Western Law, & Senior Fellow, International Law Research Program, Centre for International Governance Innovation. One of the most daunting challenges in the implementation of the UNGPs is grappling with the legal relevance of the second pillar, the business responsibility to respect rights. The hostility of grass roots human rights civil society organizations and many “third world” states to the UNGPs rests to a large extent upon an understanding that whatever the business responsibility to respect rights is, it most definitely is not “legally binding,” whether under domestic or international law.