Going beyond the buzzwords to operationalise human rights due diligence

Many people are tuning out when it comes to the latest sustainability acronyms. Among the regulatory alphabet soup of environmental, social and governance (ESG), human rights due diligence (HRDD) or Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), it is easy to forget what the original intention is: to prevent harm to people. RSK International Projects Group (IPG) Associate Director and Human Rights Lead Kübra Kalkandelen outlines how to navigate human rights due diligence and identify the most important actions.

Human rights due diligence in practice

As practitioners, we see the practical side of these obligations every day. Our work doesn’t happen in compliance workshops or policy briefs; it happens on construction sites, at community meetings and in contractor value chains. From this vantage point, the real question is not what companies are required to do. It is how they make it work.

There are four key practices that shift human rights due diligence (HRDD) from paper to practice:

• Stop at Tier 1 and you’re already behind

The process of de-risking a supply chain goes beyond immediate collaborators. A supply chain hasn’t been effectively reviewed until subcontractors, recruitment intermediaries or seasonal workers have also been looked at.

Due diligence cannot end at the first-tier vendor list. The most serious risks – child labour, gender-based violence and informal work – are typically located further downstream. If due diligence stops where contracts stop, the full picture is not visible.

• Guidance is not a PDF. It’s people.

Due diligence cannot be automated or outsourced into irrelevance. We have seen entire HRDD programmes stall because the ‘tools’ lacked context or buy-in.

The most effective interventions involve cross-functional teams: ESG specialists, procurement managers, community facilitators and site-level engineers, all aligned around shared human rights goals. It’s not about having a policy, it’s about building capacity that lives within operations.

• Oversight without engagement doesn’t work

Regulatory penalties have their place, but sanctions alone don’t drive meaningful improvement. Grievance mechanisms and social feedback loops need to be embedded from the start, during design and not just at delivery. This approach improves risk visibility, builds trust and often addresses potential harms long before they escalate.

• Supplier compliance requires co-development

Many due diligence models unintentionally transfer risk downstream, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), which have limited resources. Co-designed onboarding tools, codes of conduct and simplified risk maps help SMEs comply without getting squeezed out. Supporting these suppliers is foundational to sustainable value chains.

What does this mean for delivery?

For companies operating in infrastructure, energy, extractives, agriculture, food and beverage and garment and footwear – especially in high-risk or emerging markets – HRDD is no longer an optional or niche concern. It is now something they must take seriously and has become an essential, specialised and mainstream concern for businesses.

Environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA) are now expected to embed HRDD principles and address a broader range of issues across all project phases – including design, construction, operation and decommissioning – not just traditional environmental impacts. This means ESIAs should:

• assess human rights risks beyond the immediate project footprint, applying HRDD to consider potential impacts throughout the supply chain and in communities indirectly affected by the project, at every stage
• ensure stakeholder engagement that centres rightsholders, not just influencers, reflecting HRDD’s emphasis on meaningful consultation with those whose rights may be impacted across the project life cycle
• integrate accessible, effective grievance systems throughout the life cycle, consistent with HRDD requirements that grievance mechanisms be practical and available to all stakeholders, not just in policy.

ESIAs should now adopt a holistic, rights-based approach that fully integrates HRDD into the assessment and management of environmental, social and human rights risks and impacts throughout the entire project life cycle.

It is easy to get caught up in the terminology. But if your HRDD approach does not empower teams, anticipate risks or involve people, it is just another policy. The way forward is not more buzzwords; it is co-designed, embedded and accountable action.