New Action Plan on Business and Human Rights for the European Group of NHRIs

Members of the European Group of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) met in Berlin earlier this month to attend a three day workshop on Business and Human Rights.

Representatives from more than 20 NHRIs attended the workshop which was organised by the German Institute for Human Rights with assistance from the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Global Compact Network Germany. Human rights experts from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Labour Organisation, European Commission, and civil society organisations also attended the event.

The Berlin Action Plan on Business and Human Rights was adopted at the end of the workshop. The Action Plan outlines priority areas for individual NHRIs and for the European Group collectively for the period of 2012-2015.

One of the areas we need to focus on in the coming year, which we identified in Berlin is the European Council’s Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy and the decision from EU Member States to develop in 2013 national plans for implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in line with the European Commission’s renewed strategy for CSR from October 2011. said Prof. Alan Miller, chair of the European Group of NHRIs and the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

-We will involve ourselves in the process at the national levels as well as at the European level to guarantee that these national action plans fulfil their potential.”

Claire Methven O’Brien, Senior Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights stated:

- The Berlin Action Plan is a landmark development for NHRIs in demonstrating our mandate and commitment to address human rights abuses for which market conditions and actors are responsible. Europe-wide, vulnerable rights-holders, such as persons with disabilities, the elderly and children who rely on social support are suffering the consequences of austerity measures, that in turn result from failures of market regulation.

- Outside Europe, many people experience working conditions and environmental damage for which European-based corporations are responsible. The Berlin Action Plan sets out concrete actions for Europe’s NHRIs to respond to such unacceptable externalization of costs and harness business potential to support realization of human rights in the region.