The Guidelines constitute a set of voluntary recommendations to multinational enterprises in all the major areas of business ethics, including employment and industrial relations, human rights, environment, information disclosure, combating bribery, consumer interests, science and technology, competition, and taxation. Adhering governments have committed to promote them among multinational enterprises operating in or from their territories.

The instrument’s distinctive implementation mechanisms include the operations of National Contact Points (NCP), which are government offices charged with promoting the Guidelines and handling enquiries in the national context.  Adhering countries comprise all 30 OECD member countries, and eleven non-member countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Peru, Romania and Slovenia).

The Investment Committee has oversight responsibility for the Guidelines which are one part of a broader OECD investment instrument - the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises .

In addition, the Guidelines are complemented by commentaries which provide information on and explanation of the Guidelines text and implementation procedures. Finally, clarifications provide interpretations of how certain provisions of the Guidelines should be understood, as a result of deliberations by the Investment Committee.

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