Board directors sit at the very top of the business world. They take important decisions that affect thousands if not millions of people: their employees, their shareholders, their customers and the communities where they operate.

The Commission has produced a short guide to help board directors understand what they need to do to ‘know’ and ‘show’ their company respects human rights in practice. It sets out five steps for boards to follow to ensure their company:

• embeds the responsibility to respect human rights into its culture, knowledge and practices
• identifies and understands its salient, or most severe, risks to human rights
• systematically addresses its salient, or most severe, risks to human rights and provides for remedy when needed
• engages with stakeholders to inform its approach to addressing human rights risks, and
• reports on its salient, or most severe, human rights risks and meets regulatory reporting requirements.

The board guidance is also available to download along with further information on identifying and preventing human rights risks for business.