Rights-Compatible Grievance Mechanisms: A Guidance Tool for Companies and Their Stakeholders

Abstract

An effective grievance mechanism is an essential addition for any responsible company to its tools for monitoring, auditing and stakeholder engagement. But what exactly makes a grievance mechanism effective? This guidance aims to help answer that question. It provides a tool for companies and their local stakeholders jointly to devise rights-compatible, effective grievance mechanisms that maximise the opportunities to achieve sustainable solutions to disputes. A rights-compatible mechanism integrates human rights norms and standards into its processes and is based on principles of non-discrimination, equity, accountability, empowerment and participation. It can deal with most kinds of grievances (bar those raising criminal liability), including - but by no means limited to - those that reflect substantive human/labour rights concerns. Ensuring it is rights-compatible in both its process and outcomes is vital to the mechanism's credibility and legitimacy, both locally and internationally, as well as to its potential success in practice.