The Human Rights and Business Project provides a range of services directly to companies, including reviews of company policies and codes of conduct, customized country risk briefings, compliance assessments and training.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights and The Human Rights and Business Project are non-profit organisations. All proceeds from consultancy services go directly to research and related activities aimed at the promotion and strengthening of human rights.

Policy Analysis
Many international companies have chosen to incorporate human rights into policies and procedures throughout their operations. This often consists of external statements, codes of conduct or commitment to principles, such as those formulated by the United Nations Global Compact. In many cases, this also consists of internal controls for preventing, mitigating, responding to and remediating violations.

The Human Rights and Business Project plays a role in the creation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of these company policies and codes of conduct. We have collaborated with a number of companies on the creation of their external statements and internal procedural controls, including expansion of existing policies to incorporate changes in the operational environment or international human rights standards.

As policies are implemented, the Human Rights and Business Project performs a ‘gap analysis’ comparing existing company policy to international human rights law, including sector-specific standards and industry best practices. Policies can also be compared to external standard, such as the Business Leaders Initiative for Human Rights Matrix or Global Reporting Initiative standards. These analyses are done using our Human Rights Compliance Assessment tool, which is built upon a database covering all internationally recognized human rights and their application to business.
All of these approaches take into account company operations, site locations, stages of engagement and legal liability, and aim to improve the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of each company code.

For more information on policy analysis, contact Allan Jørgensen:  or (+45) 3269 8929.

Sector-Specific Expertise
The Human Rights and Business Project has a wide range of client and partner companies, including extensive experience with the pharmaceutical, apparel, extractive and chemical industries. We provide ongoing guidance to a number of sectors, including the identification of industry best practices and policy implementation.

The Human Rights and Business Project has provided management primers and issue briefs on a number of human rights topics and their relevance for specific industries. This is usually done in direct collaboration with the client company, matching human rights information to the company’s specific operations, markets and challenge. These reports arm managers with the tools to implement company policy in their day to day activities, and the knowledge to identify risks before they become violations.

Country Risk Briefings
Human rights risks and challenges differ greatly according to the activities that a company is engaged in. An extractive business, such as mining, will confront a different set of problems than a clothing company. Similarly, many countries have vastly different human rights conditions according to their internal geography, and may contain remote regions where human rights violations are more severe or systematic than closer to the capital.

The Human Rights and Business Project creates customized country risk reports for companies based on their specific operations and site location. These reports present overall country risk and legal framework, followed by the human rights risks and context for the company's sector and location. These reports are created in collaboration with companies, with information on their specific needs matched to the local and sectoral context.

For more information on country risk, contact Mike Baab:  or (+45) 3269 8952

Site Visits
Human Rights and Business Project staff can apply the HRCA directly to a company's operations on the ground. This consists of staff members visiting a company operation and customizing the HRCA tool to the specific local context and business activities. The team conducts a series of interviews with managers to identify the most urgent human rights issues for management, and issues recommendations for prevention and mitigation steps. This process is tailored to the company's needs, and can be coupled with country risk briefings and policy analysis.

Training Courses for Business and NGOs
The Human Rights and Business Project offers training for managers and employees on understanding the relevance of human rights in daily operations and the implementation of international standards in the business context. Courses address the key issues of human rights and provide tools for dealing with human rights effectively and immediately in a company setting. Courses are targeted towards mid-level managers and CSR specialists with limited or no prior experience with human rights issues.
We also offer courses to NGOs on detecting human rights violations and working with companies to prevent and mitigate violations in the local context.

For more information on consultancy services, contact Allan Jørgensen:  or (+45) 3269 8929.