The Role of the State in Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights and Business with Special Consideration of Poland

Recent years have seen improvements in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consistency and interconnectedness. It is argued that one of the reasons for this development is the adoption of a clear, universal UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework for Business and Human Rights and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which encouraged CSR to be understood as a management process with the normative substance that it has, to some extent, been lacking. The business community was actively engaged in developing and testing the UN Guiding Principles in practice. Yet equally important, if not more so, is the role the Framework envisages being played by states, particularly with regards to the skilled implementation of the UN Guiding Principles and the development by states of legal and incentives frameworks aligned with them and aimed at improving the business and social environment within its jurisdiction. This article examines the UN Guiding Principles provisions concerning states and their obligations, as well as looks at how their implementation advances in the case of Poland. It also offers some suggestions for a way forward where relevant.