"Implementing the European Union Due Diligence Directive: The real cost of low ambition is human rights abuses", 28 July 2026

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is urging the European Commission to ensure that the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive remains firmly grounded in human rights standards. Its recommendations reject an approach based on "cost effectiveness" and call for meaningful corporate accountability and engagement with rightsholders facing potential and real abuses.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has contributed to the open consultation launched by the European Commission to gather recommendations on the implementation of the Corporate Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) at the national level of each Member State...

While FIDH appreciates the Commission’s open consultative process, it strongly regrets its framing.

The systematic use of the notion of "cost-effectiveness" throughout the consultation questionnaire goes against the spirit of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence and, most importantly, existing international human rights standards. It alludes to a cost-based rationale for deprioritising identification of risks, prevention and remediation of corporate harms.

The Guidelines should insist on the importance for companies to meaningfully engage a wide range of stakeholders, particularly affected and potentially affected persons. They must do so in an ongoing, safe and timely manner throughout the due diligence process to ensure that existing due diligence and remediation measures effectively respond to their needs.