ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS IN MULTI-STAKEHOLDER INITIATIVES POLICY BRIEF April 2023
KEY MESSAGES This briefing explores the potential of grievance mechanisms in multi-stakeholder initiatives to address the adverse impacts of corporate activity on workers and communities. It is based on a four year research project which examined grievance mechanisms in six MSIs. It finds that grievance mechanisms can provide significant benefits to workers and communities. But individual grievance mechanisms perform very differently from one another. At the same time a variety of serious problems currently undermine the value of of grievance mechanisms for workers and communities. The briefing therefore makes ten recommendations for how to enhance MSI grievance mechanisms in the future.
KEY RESOURCES ‘Grievance Mechanisms in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Providing Effective Remedy for Human Rights Violations?’ Business and Human Rights Journal (2023): 1-23. ‘The value of complaints mechanisms in private labour regulation of GVCs: A case study of the Fair Labor Association’ Under review, International Labour Review, available on request from authors. ‘Assessing the effectiveness of non-state-based grievance mechanisms in providing access to remedy for rightsholders: A case study of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’ Business and Human Rights Journal 6.1 (2021): 67-92. Nomogaia, MSI grievance mechanisms database and reports (2023)