Effective Grievance Mechanisms in European Due Diligence Legislation

In this paper, the focus is on non-governmental operational grievance mechanisms. They are located at company level or with independent third parties and complement other redress mechanisms, in particular official procedures (state extrajudicial grievance mechanisms) and lawsuits, for example under civil law (state judicial mechanisms). In this way, they help to ensure that rights holders have as encompassing a remedy system as possible at their disposal. Operational complaints mechanisms in particular can fulfill important functions of risk analysis and prevention as well as building trust between rights holders and companies. They can be used at a low threshold and at an early stage and thus achieve a very high impact with relatively little effort. However, they must be well designed and operated seriously and competently.