Navigating the Policy Practice Gap? Opportunities and Pitfalls for Public Buyers in Enforcing Due Diligence in Procurement

Besides designing and enacting, governments are identified by the UNGPs, as key players in promoting and accelerating sustainable corporate practices. With a 12% GDP share in OECD countries, public procurement is a powerful instrument for advancing human rights due diligence (HRDD). This obligation necessitates that companies undertake a thorough investigation and address the human rights risks within their value chains. Research is emerging on the opportunities and limitations of the European public procurement directive (2014/24/EU) in terms of incorporating HRDD. However, limited scholarly attention has gone to documenting public buyers’ day-to-day experiences integrating human rights into the procurement process. While far from an established and converging practice, public buyers are experimenting with procurement clauses and searching for support from intermediaries (e.g., civil society and consultants). The objective of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it seeks to provide a theoretical understanding of how the protection of human rights can be incorporated into public procurement , with a specific focus on directive 2014/24/EU. Secondly, it will assess the practices and experiences of public buyers in incorporating human rights requirements into procurement contracts. To this end, an online survey will be conducted, three case studies across different European countries will be carried out and in-depth interviews with procurement officials will be undertaken to analyse how public procurers perceive their role in HRDD and identify emerging practices, opportunities and pitfalls they face. It is hypothesised that integration of human rights into public procurement has some ‘islands of success’ where the uptake of human rights clauses by public buyers is high and indications of impact can be identified. However, we expect also that most public buyers are overwhelmed in the absence of guiding policy frameworks, expertise and means. Lessons can be learned, but transferring successful practices to other contexts might not be straightforward .