By Otgontuya Davaanyam[1]
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20411969
Abstract: This paper examines how corporate environmental responsibility is interpreted under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, with particular emphasis on the integration of human rights and environmental due diligence into a unified corporate accountability framework. While recent regulatory developments, including the OECD Guidelines (2023 update) and emerging mandatory due diligence regimes such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, formally integrate environmental and human rights obligations, the extent to which such integration is conceptually coherent and operationally effective remains contested.
Drawing on qualitative doctrinal analysis and systematic content analysis of 28 OECD National Contact Point (NCP) cases involving environmental harm, the paper demonstrates that NCP practice reflects a persistent tension between environmental and human rights approaches. Environmental harms are often assessed through technocratic and procedural frameworks, prioritising impact assessments, mitigation measures, and compliance-based management systems. This approach frequently marginalises procedural environmental rights, particularly access to information, public participation, and meaningful stakeholder engagement, thereby limiting the identification and redress of associated human rights impacts.
Moreover, NCP outcomes remain predominantly forward-looking, with limited emphasis on remediation for past and ongoing environmental harm. The paper argues that effective integration requires a substantive recalibration of corporate due diligence frameworks to reflect the interdependence of environmental and human rights harms, incorporating both procedural environmental rights and more robust approaches to remediation.
[1] Otgontuya Davaanyam, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany otgontuya.davaanyam@fau.de
Environmental Rights Review 
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