National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights gaining ground
Last week at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Chile announced that it will join the growing number of countries developing National Action Plans on human rights and business – or, in short, NAPs.
National Action Plans lay the foundations for increased policy coherence between states, corporations and civil society. The process of doing a robust NAP provides an opportunity for states to engage with business and other key stakeholders to clarify expectations. All with the goal of putting corporate responsibility for human rights in motion.
“We are extremely happy that so many states are developing National Action Plans, because they should give a major boost to efforts to make our economies more sustainable. Bringing corporate conduct in line with people’s human rights is a critical part of that, said Claire Methven O’Brien, Strategic Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
Major players involved
The Danish Institute for Human Rights co-hosted a discussion on National Action Plans at the UN Forum in Geneva – in part because one of the most widely used guides for doing a proper action plan has been developed by the Institute in collaboration with the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable.
The US, Scotland, Germany, Ireland and now Chile are just a few of the many nations presently developing NAPs – and leaning on the toolkit for action plans produced by the Institute.
“It is not easy to do a good National Action Plan, but our toolkit allows the states to ‘choose their own adventure’ while still acting in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles for human rights and business. We do not offer a one-size-fits-all solution and that is a big upside for the states,” Claire Methven O’Brien adds.
Civil society not enough involved
It has only been six months since it was published but already the Toolkit has been referred to in discussions in the African Union, Council of Europe, European Network of National Human Rights Institutions and at a special event held as part of the 14thAsia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)on Business and Human Rights in Novemberand, now with Chile’s announcement, also in South America.
There is, however, still quite a way to go, according to Claire Methven O’Brien:
“There is a lot of enthusiasm from states, but we need to see rights-holders and stakeholders – civil society, business and labour – being more involved. There has been a tendency in NAPs so far that stakeholders have not been included enough. With NAPs, the journey is as important as the destination, and to get a robust, legitimate NAP, governments need to involve stakeholders from day one.”
The Danish Institute for Human Rights will present the Toolkit at the EU Multistakeholder Forum on CSR in Brussels this week, along with the European Coalition for Corporate Justice, which has just released a benchmarking of NAPs from Denmark, the UK, Finland and the Netherlands based on the institute's Toolkit.