In a public statement released today, the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) calls on States to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) on business and human rights and provides recommendations for the content of such plans.
GBI’s statement notes that States have a duty to protect human rights consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Further, it emphasizes that this duty sits alongside the need for all companies in all geographies to meet their corporate responsibility to respect human rights – responsibility that all GBI Members embrace and promote with peers around the world.
GBI recommends that each National Action Plan focus on:
- Reinforcing the concept of shared but differentiated responsibilities between States and business affirmed in the ‘Protect, Respect, Remedy’ Framework of the UNGPs.
- Building the State’s ability to know and show how the State itself addresses human rights and business at home and abroad using the full range of relevant policy instruments available to it, including in the context of its economic and commercial activities.
- Strengthening internal capacity and coherence across relevant government agencies.
- Increasing collaboration between States to address entrenched business and human rights challenges and the governance gaps that underpin them.
- Linking the business and human rights agenda with sustainable development in ways that reinforce good governance.
- Applying credible methodologies and fostering convergence in how States scope, develop and implement NAPs.
- Using business as a strategic partner alongside other stakeholders.
GBI’s Executive Director, Mark Hodge comments:
‘Government leadership is critical to achieving tangible and positive results for individuals and communities affected by economic and business activity. Governments respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling human rights is an essential part of creating an enabling environment for responsible investment and business today and for the long term.’
The full statement is available online at: https://gbihr.org/images/features/GBI_NAP_Statement_June_2015_Web.pdf