Ensuring compliance with the UN guiding principles through contract: can AI help?

Every business has a social responsibility to respect human rights, upheld by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the associated ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework. In response to this, human rights compliance clauses (‘HRCCs’) in international supply contracts are on the rise. In particular, they have been adopted by various multinational corporations with a presence in the UK stock market, including Centrica plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Procter & Gamble Company, Rio Tinto plc, and Unilever plc.. Whilst this is an admirable effort, this paper will argue that, as currently drafted, the HRCCs studied fail to meaningfully contribute to the development and enforcement of the Framework. This is exacerbated by the key barriers to the use of HRCCs, including privity of contract and commercial interest. However, it will be shown that the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) solutions in contract review, drafting, and enforcement, could improve the potential of HRCCs in making global supply chains more human rights compliant.