Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

What Business & Human Rights Resource Centre does

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRC) is an international non-governmental organization that tracks and documents news, allegations, and analysis on the human rights impacts of over 20,000 companies worldwide. Its core platform is a web-based content management and database system aggregating more than 200,000 pages of curated content, including civil society reports, company disclosures, and investigative journalism. Specialized products include the Company Response Mechanism (operational since 2005), the Human Rights Defenders Database, the Transition Minerals Tracker, KnowTheChain (forced labour benchmarks), the Lawsuits Database, the SLAPPs Database, the Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool, and enhanced Company Dashboards for extractive, textile, hotel, and technology sectors. Content is distributed in 11+ languages through the website, RSS feeds, regional email newsletters, and social channels including LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky.

BHRC operates as a registered charity with entities in England and Wales (No. 1096664), the United States (501(c)(3)), and Germany (e.V. VR 38088 B), funded through donations from individuals and organizations. The go-to-market model is community-led: all content and database access is free, distributed to a global audience of responsible investors, company executives, journalists, civil society organizations, academics, government bodies, and legal professionals. The organization maintains a global team with leadership across four continents and runs the Mary Robinson Speaker Series as a thought-leadership platform. There is no pricing model, no commercial product offering, and no disclosed revenue beyond charitable contributions.

Name

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Legal name

Business and Human Rights Centre

Website

https://business-humanrights.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is a global non-profit that tracks news and allegations on the human rights impacts of 20,000+ companies via a 200,000+ page multilingual database, serving investors, executives, journalists, and civil society through free content and specialized accountability tools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: BHRC operates as a registered charity (No. 1096664 in England and Wales, 501(c)(3) in the USA, and e.V. in Germany VR 38088 B) funded through donations from individuals and organizations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BHRC operates a multilingual online platform that aggregates and curates news, allegations, civil society reports, and analysis on the human rights impacts of over 20,000 companies worldwide. The organization distributes this curated research free of charge through its website, newsletters, and specialized databases to investors, executives, journalists, and civil society allies globally. Its core mechanism since 2005 invites companies to formally respond to allegations, creating a unique accountability feedback loop.

Product overview

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre operates a comprehensive digital platform focused on tracking and documenting business impacts on human rights globally. The core offering consists of an extensive company database covering over 20,000 companies with dedicated pages and enhanced dashboards for clothing/textiles, extractive, hotel, and technology sectors. The platform provides thematic tracking tools including the Transition Minerals Tracker (annual analysis of mining-related human rights risks), KnowTheChain (forced labour benchmarks), Human Rights Defenders Database (attacks on defenders), Lawsuits Database (corporate legal accountability cases), SLAPPs Database, and Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool. Supplementary offerings include the Company Response Mechanism (inviting company responses to allegations) and the Who Pays for The Crisis Portal (purchasing practices monitoring). Distribution occurs via the Weekly Update newsletter and regional/language-specific newsletters (Latin America, German, French, Japanese, Chinese). The platform aggregates news, civil society reports, company disclosures, and research across 200,000+ pages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KnowTheChain: Benchmark and resource platform addressing forced labour in global supply chains
• Company Response Mechanism
• Transition Minerals Tracker
• Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool

Products and services

• Company Database Digital platform storing news and allegations relating to human rights impacts of over 20,000 companies worldwide, with content ranging from a handful of articles to over a decade of news stories, civil society reports, and company disclosures for each company profile.
• Company Dashboards Enhanced company pages presenting key data based on corporate policies and scores from civil society benchmarks. Available for clothing/textiles brands, extractive industries firms, hotel companies, and technology firms.
• KnowTheChain Resource for companies and investors to address forced labour in global supply chains, providing benchmarks and practical resources for company transparency and investor decision-making.
• Transition Minerals Tracker Annual monitoring tool tracking human rights risks linked to major mining operations for minerals used in renewable energy, electrification, and battery technologies.
• Human Rights Defenders Database Database containing thousands of recorded instances of attacks by companies impacting the rights of human rights defenders.
• Lawsuits Against Companies Database Searchable database of lawsuits brought against companies to hold them accountable for alleged human rights abuses, with analysis of litigation trends.
• SLAPPs Database Database of legal cases bearing the hallmarks of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, a tactic used by business actors to silence critics.
• Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool Hub for tracking litigation lawsuits against companies undertaking transition mineral mining or renewable energy projects where rightsholders argue abuse of human and environmental rights.
• Who Pays for The Crisis Portal Monitoring portal tracking adverse impacts of brand purchasing practices on workers during global crises.
• Company Response Mechanism

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 200,000 pages of curated content on business and human rights
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Shift: Shift is a non-profit center for business and human rights that works exclusively on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights—directly comparable in mandate, target audience (companies, investors, policymakers), and non-profit resource-center model.
• Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO): SOMO investigates multinational corporations' human rights and environmental impacts, particularly in global supply chains. It is a direct functional peer producing investigative research and corporate accountability outputs for similar civil society, investor, and policy audiences.
• Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB): IHRB is a global think tank focused on business and human rights, producing research, convenings, and policy advice for companies and governments—an immediate peer in mission, audience, and non-profit funding model.

Emerging players

• Inclusive Development International: IDI is a smaller non-profit that supports communities affected by development projects and works on corporate accountability in finance and infrastructure—a niche peer with overlapping methodology on community-driven human rights documentation.
• RepRisk: RepRisk is a commercial ESG data science company that screens media, NGOs, and other sources for business conduct risks including human rights abuses—closely aligned methodology (aggregating civil society allegations) but serving investors via paid data products rather than free access.
• Verisk Maplecroft: Verisk Maplecroft produces commercial human rights and political risk indices used by corporations and investors for due diligence. It overlaps heavily with BHRC's audience and use cases (investment risk assessment) but operates on a paid subscription model.

Broad incumbents

• BSR (Business for Social Responsibility): BSR is a longstanding global sustainability advisory network serving large multinationals on human rights, ESG strategy, and supply chain due diligence. It operates more as a consultancy than a free resource center but addresses the same corporate accountability theme with overlapping audiences.
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): GRI sets the most widely used sustainability reporting standards, including human rights disclosures. It serves overlapping corporate, investor, and policy audiences and is a benchmark-setter in the same ESG data ecosystem where BHRC operates.
• Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Watch is a major international human rights organization producing investigative reporting on corporate abuses. It shares BHRC's documentation mission and global media footprint but focuses more on state and military accountability than on business-only conduct.

Regional players

• China Labour Bulletin: China Labour Bulletin is a Hong Kong-based non-profit documenting labor rights abuses in Chinese supply chains, including for global brands. It is a regional peer with overlapping investor and corporate accountability use cases, particularly relevant to BHRC's supply-chain and just-transition coverage.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/business-and-human-rights-resource-centre
• Xx.com/bhrrc
• Facebookfacebook.com/Business-Human-Rights-Resource-Centre

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Business & Human Rights Resource Centre