Our Approach
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Explore the sections below to learn more about how and why we built the Guide, and the ideas that shaped it.
“Stakeholders” vs. “Affected Stakeholders” and “Rights Holders”: “Stakeholders” in relation to businesses is a broad category that refers to any individual or group that has an interest in a company’s upstream and downstream operations, encompassing suppliers, business partners, and investors, as well as communities, workers, and consumers. “Affected stakeholders,” on the other hand, are those stakeholders whose rights are at stake – who may potentially be harmed by a company’s operations, products or services. “Rights holders,” often used interchangeably with “affected stakeholders” including within the UNGPs, carries a legal connotation: it refers to the entitlement of potentially affected stakeholders to a specific duty of care by the duty bearer (in this case, the company responsible for negative impacts) under international human rights law. Like the UNGPs, this Guide uses the terms “rights holders” and “affected stakeholders” interchangeably. “Worker rights” refers to the internationally recognized labor rights enunciated in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which includes freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, and safe working conditions. “Stakeholder Engagement” vs. “Social Dialogue:” Stakeholder engagement is the broad practice of interacting with those affected by or having an interest in a company’s activities to “provide meaningful opportunities for their views to be taken into account.” (OECD, p. 3). Social dialogue is a specific form of engagement between employers and workers (or their representatives) aimed at negotiating work-related issues and rooted in international labor standards (See On Social Dialogue). “Users” vs. “Affected Non-Users” or “Non-Consenting Users” in Digital Technologies: In the digital technology context, stakeholder engagement must consider both users—those who accept a company’s terms—and affected non-users or non-consenting users, whose rights may still be affected. In her work on Surveillance Capitalism, scholar Shoshana Zuboff refers to the latter as “data subjects. ”The design and use of surveillance technologies by businesses and governments can infringe on non-users’ privacy and freedoms, even if they do not directly engage with the technology. Indigenous Peoples vs. Settled Communities: Indigenous Peoples, as recognized under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (ILO Convention 169), hold the right to self-determination. This includes the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), meaning their consent must be obtained before any project that may affect their lands, territories, or resources proceeds. In contrast, settled communities—those with long-standing residence in a given area—should be consulted by companies as a matter of good practice, though such consultation is not legally mandated. Throughout this Guide, we use the term “communities” to refer specifically to settled communities. |
