ICAR-DIHR National Action Plans Project

National Action Plans State Strategies for Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Introduction

Objectives

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in an effort to guide governments, corporations, and other relevant stakeholders in ensuring that business operations around the world do not result in human rights abuses. Since the adoption of the UNGPs, many States have committed in principle to these new standards, yet significant work remains to be done to formulate actual implementation strategies – such as National Action Plans (NAPs) – to carry out this commitment.

1. Map and analyze dedicated measures taken by States to implement the UNGPs, from a human-rights perspective.

The goal of this Project is to produce a Toolkit to support the development and evaluation of State-level measures to implement the UNGPs. The Toolkit will comprise three parts: (1) Comprehensive Baseline Assessment (CBA) methodologies that can be used to assess a State’s point of entry performance in implementing the UNGPs; (2) guidelines for NAPs, addressing both their minimum content and also a human-rights based process for their development; (3) a mapping of different possible modalities for assessing States’ performance on their commitments to the UNGPs on a periodic basis, at regional and international levels. Recognizing that the UNGPs are a floor and not a ceiling, the Toolkit will integrate additional, internationally recognized standards addressing responsible business conduct that can help to give more specific content to various elements of the UNGPs framework.

Combining research and consultation, the Project aims to provide significant support for progress by States towards effective implementation of their duty to protect human rights under the UNGPs. The Project will actively seek to inform and complement actions and initiatives in this area by all relevant actors, including States and the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises (UNWG).

2. Formulate recommendations, including for (i) Comprehensive Baseline Assessment (CBA) methodologies; (ii) a model NAP and NAP process; and (iii) potential modalities for periodic evaluation of State implementation, for instance, via reporting and monitoring at regional and international levels.

3. Develop a strategy to promote implementation of recommendations by all stakeholders.

Timeline August 2013 – ICAR and DIHR Project Team begins research Mid- to late September 2013 – Consultations with stakeholders Mid-October 2013 – Consultation event on draft Toolkit and Project Report Late November 2013 – Toolkit and Project Report launch

National Action Plans: State Strategies for Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Background The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) (“Project Team”) have been closely following developments on NAPs and other State-level strategies for implementation of the UNGPs across the world.

Since 2011, we have initiated research ourselves, and in conjunction with partners, in the areas of UNGPs baseline assessment methodologies, UNGPs national action plans, human rights-based approaches to processes of developing NAPs, and international or regional mechanisms for periodic monitoring of national UNGPs implementation measures. In earlier interventions, we have highlighted the critical need for NAPs to be developed – relying on human rights-based approaches – and then publicly communicated, as a basis to hold governments to account for progress on implementation of the UNGPs and the fulfillment of the duty to protect human rights.

In this Project ICAR and DIHR will collaborate to draw on their ongoing engagements with this agenda to develop a Toolkit that includes a robust, human rights-based methodology and template for national baseline assessments, NAP development, and follow-up reporting and accountability measures, which could take place, for instance, via Universal Periodic Review (UPR), peer review, and global or regional dialogue processes.

METHODOLOGY The Project Team’s current knowledge-base includes experiences of a variety of UNGPs implementation pilot processes that are already underway around the world, led by project partners and collaborators. During the Project, this platform will be supplemented with desk research and consultations with civil society organizations, NHRIs, and other stakeholders.

Stakeholders will then be invited to review and feed into an exposure draft of the Toolkit, both electronically and during a consultation event.

A revised version of the Toolkit and a final Project Report will be launched in late 2013 and disseminated widely.

Throughout, opportunities will be sought to inform and complement our process with initiatives by all relevant actors, including States and the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, as well as civil society actors and NHRIs.

About Our Project Team The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) is a coalition of human rights, development, environmental, and labor groups that creates, promotes, and defends legal frameworks to ensure businesses respect human rights in their global operations.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) is Denmark’s national human rights institution (NHRI). DIHR undertakes research and tool development to promote knowledge, understanding, and respect of human rights nationally and internationally. The Human Rights and Business Department within DIHR focuses on the private sector and its role in respecting human rights.

For more information about this Project, please contact: 

Project Directors: Amol Mehra, Director, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) Claire Methven O’Brien, Special Adviser, DIHR, Human Rights and Business

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Project Fellows: Sara Blackwell, Legal and Policy Fellow, ICAR, sara@accountabilityroundtable.org Catherine Poulsen Hansen, Adviser, DIHR, cph@humanrights.dk