New Zealand has not yet ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. This is despite significant international pressure. This includes recommendations at New Zealand’s 2024 Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations to ratify (or consider ratifying) the convention.52 5.2 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles) are non-binding principles endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council.53 These principles provide guidance to the State and business and represent a global standard for preventing and addressing adverse human rights impacts resulting from business activity. The UN Guiding Principles incorporate three pillars, known as the Protect, Respect and Remedy framework as follows: • the State duty to protect human rights • the corporate responsibility to respect human rights • the need for rights and obligations to be matched to appropriate and effective remedy when breached. The Government is currently implementing a plan of action against forced labour, human trafficking and slavery that structures Government action under these three pillars.54 52 These recommendations came from Uruguay, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Honduras, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal and Algeria. 53 UN Human Rights Council, Protect, respect and remedy: a framework for business and human rights: Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, John Ruggie, 7 April 2008, A/HRC/8/5, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/ guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf. 54 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/plan-of-action-against-forced-labour-peopletrafficking-and-slavery/implementation-report 13