Human rights due diligence (HRDD)

Why does it matter?

In agricultural supply chains, risks such as child labour, forced labour, unsafe work, land conflicts and incomes below a living income are concentrated among farms and workers far from the buyer. HRDD is the method for finding and addressing them. It is increasingly required by law, notably by the CSDDD.

How does it work?

The UN Guiding Principles and OECD guidance describe a cycle:

1. Embed responsible business conduct in policies and management systems.
2. Identify and assess actual and potential adverse impacts, prioritising by severity and likelihood.
3. Cease, prevent or mitigate them.
4. Track implementation and results.
5. Communicate how impacts are addressed.
6. Provide for or cooperate in remediation, including through grievance mechanisms.

Meaningful engagement with affected stakeholders, including farmers, workers and communities, runs through every step.

Common pitfalls

• Audit-only approaches that visit a few farms on announced dates.
• No feedback loop: identifying cases without tracking remediation outcomes.
• Extractive data collection without consent or benefit to respondents.

Farmer1st’s human rights due diligence service supports risk identification, monitoring and remediation tracking through direct, consented contact with farmers.