Putting the Environment in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence

The briefing advocates for the EU to include specific, mandatory environmental protection requirements in its sustainable corporate governance directive. It argues that human rights frameworks alone are insufficient because environmental damage can occur without direct human harm. The authors propose that due diligence should cover the entire value chain, align with international agreements like the Paris Agreement, and include a non-exhaustive list of impacts such as biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. To ensure effectiveness, the document calls for a combination of administrative, criminal, and civil liability, including access to EU courts for victims of harms occurring outside the EU.

• Environmental protection must be a distinct requirement in the EU directive because environmental damage can occur without constituting a human rights violation or causing immediate harm to people.
• Environmental due diligence should be defined as a company's obligation to identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, cease, monitor, and account for adverse impacts across their operations, subsidiaries, and business relationships throughout the entire value chain, including the requirement to remedy harms.
• The EU should define adverse environmental impacts by referencing international agreements and a non-exhaustive list that includes climate change (greenhouse gas emissions), pollution of air, soil, water, and noise, hazardous substances, waste, and the loss of forests, biodiversity, habitats, and species.
• Corporate climate targets under the new legislation should be aligned with the 1.5-degree target scenario of the Paris Agreement and cover Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions.
• Effective enforcement requires a mix of administrative, criminal, and civil liability, with national authorities empowered to sanction non-compliance and the public, including NGOs, enabled to bring complaints.
• The civil liability regime must provide victims of corporate abuses, whether inside or outside the EU, with access to justice, including group claims in EU courts, a fairer distribution of the burden of proof, and longer time limitations for transnational claims.

APA

Global Witness (2021). Putting the Environment in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence. https://globalwitness.org/documents/104/Putting_the_Environment_in_Human_Rights_and_Environmental_Due_Diligence_1.pdf

Chicago

Global Witness. Putting the Environment in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence. 2021. https://globalwitness.org/documents/104/Putting_the_Environment_in_Human_Rights_and_Environmental_Due_Diligence_1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=Putting the Environment in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence |date=May 2021 |url=https://globalwitness.org/documents/104/Putting_the_Environment_in_Human_Rights_and_Environmental_Due_Diligence_1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitness2021putting, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Putting the Environment in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence}}, institution = {Global Witness}, year = {2021}, month = may, url = {https://globalwitness.org/documents/104/Putting_the_Environment_in_Human_Rights_and_Environmental_Due_Diligence_1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }