Private sector leadership in human rights-aligned standard-setting:
Advancing multi-stakeholder engagement and human rights commitments in standard setting processes
Format: Roundtable under Chatham House Rule
Duration: 2 hours
As technical standards increasingly underpin compliance frameworks and signal responsible conduct, they also represent a crucial opportunity—and challenge—for embedding human rights due diligence across business practice. From large multinationals to SMEs, private sector actors are instrumental in both shaping standards and operationalizing them. Yet, the translation of human rights principles into technical specifications is far from straightforward.
This workshop will bring together stakeholders from business, representatives of standard-setting organizations, the technical community and civil society organizations to discuss standards setting processes that already or might foster a human rights-based approach and promote the uptake of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
This consultation seeks to deepen understanding of how the private sector can advance human rights in the development and implementation of technical standards. It aims to identify the incentives that drive companies—both large enterprises and SMEs—to adopt rights-respecting standards, including regulatory compliance, interoperability, ESG expectations, and stakeholder trust. The discussion will explore how human rights due diligence can be embedded throughout the standard-setting process and company operations and assess the role of technical standards in supporting inclusive innovation and responsible business conduct in line with the UNGPs. Participants will also consider mechanisms for integrating human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) into both SDO procedures and company-level implementation practices, with the goal of fostering accountable, transparent, and socially responsive approaches to AI governance.
Background on OHCHR’s work on technical standards and human rights
This consultation builds on the Human Rights Council Resolution 47/23 and OHCHR’s Human Rights Council-mandated work (A/HRC/53/42) and follows previous convenings in Seoul, Delhi, and London. Our ongoing research explores how human rights considerations can be integrated into technical standard-setting processes, such as standards related to AI. The B-Tech Project provides authoritative guidance and resources for implementing the UNGPs in the technology sector. In 2019, UN Human Rights launched the project after consultations with civil society, business, States, and other experts about the scope of the B-Tech Project. A two-pager of the OHCHR’s report on technical standards and human rights can be seen here.
