The UNGPs, which arguably apply to humanitarian NGOs, describe the scope of the responsibility to respect human rights through the following three categories of involvement in human rights abuses:
- Causation
An organization may cause human rights abuses where its activities (its actions or omissions) affect the ability of an individual or a group to enjoy a human right.[245]
For example, if an NGO builds housing, educational, or WASH facilities on the lands of displaced persons, they would be directly causing a human rights abuse – namely of housing, land, and property (HLP) rights.
In WASH, humanitarian NGOs can also directly cause human rights abuses by installing water and sanitation infrastructure without adequate oversight, leading to contamination and the outbreaks of disease. NGOs working in the health sector may cause human rights abuses by providing negligent medical treatment.
- Contribution
An organization may contribute to human rights abuses through its own activities (actions or omissions), either directly alongside other entities, or through third parties (government, armed group, other humanitarian organizations, or businesses).[246]
For example, a state institution) may set out to build housing units on lands of ethnic minorities, ultimately resulting in demographic engineering and displacement of local communities. Humanitarian NGOs who offer their services in the form of building these shelters may be unaware of the effect of this project on the human rights of the affected communities, but would nevertheless be contributing to human rights abuses.
Humanitarian NGOs working in WASH may contribute to human rights abuses by partnering with businesses that exploit water resources for profit and drive shortages for local communities, violating their right to water. In the education sector, humanitarian NGOs can contribute to discrimination if they support education programmes that exclude girls, children with disabilities, displaced children, or children from certain ethnic or religious groups due to local policies or biases. If an NGO supplies textbooks, school meals, or other goods or services in a way that benefits authorities or armed groups engaged in abuses, it may also contribute to sustaining conflict dynamics. NGOs may also contribute to human rights abuses if, for instance, they establish IDP camps without sufficient safeguards against PSEAH, enabling perpetrators, including humanitarian staff, to commit violations.
- Direct Link
Responsibility can also arise for the human rights abuses of a third party, even if the organization has not caused or contributed to such abuses. Direct linkage refers to a situation where there is a direct link between the operations, activities, or services of an organization and the human rights abuses committed by an entity, including other organizations, businesses, and state and non-state actors, with which it has a business relationship.[247]
For example, direct linkage could manifest in a situation where an NGO procures building material from a company that avails itself of child labour.
Additionally, if an NGO rents office spaces, warehouses, or distribution centres from entities who acquired such properties through pillage or forced displacement, that NGO would be directly linked to violations of HLP rights. In a similar vein, if an NGO provides food or medical aid through local intermediaries with ties to abusive regimes or armed non-state actors (ANSAs), and those actors divert or distribute aid discriminatorily, the NGO is directly linked to those violations.
245. UNGPs (n 6) Principle 13: โThe responsibility to respect human rights requires thatย business enterprises: (a) Avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts when they occur; (b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.โ
246. Ibid.
247.ย Ibid.