This report aims to provide an overview of the state of affairs of Human Rights Impact Assessment instruments and methodologies, including an analysis of how Human Rights Impact Assessments can contribute to the Business and Human Rights agenda, and to explore how the development of Human Rights Impact Assessments might be taken further.

To help policy‐makers, NGOs and the business community make further progress; the report identifies a number of areas for further improvement:

• Since impact assessments are resource and time‐intensive, practical solutions need to be developed on how to implement them most efficiently. Concrete tools and approaches will make the concept more easily accessible and incentivize its uptake by the wider business community.
• The lack of clear definitions and standards regarding business obligations for Human Rights so far limits the objectivity and comparability of such tools. Closer alignment of the pro‐active approaches to Human Rights (impact assessment tools) with the responsive aspects (reporting on Human Rights Indicators) increases the opportunities for benchmarking and mutual learning.
• The use of Impact Assessment tools raises issues of transparency, accountability and disclosure. Companies undertaking such an assessment fear that disclosure of their shortcomings might open the floor to litigations. Open dialogue between policy‐makers, the business community and NGOs is needed in order to develop practical and constructive solutions.