ICAR Letter to Inter-American Commission

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Organization of American States (OAS) 1889 F Street NW Washington, DC 20006 December 18, 2014 Dear Commissioner Vannuchi and Executive Secretary Alvarez, The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) is a coalition of approximately 35 human rights, environmental, labor, and development organizations based across the Americas. ICAR works to create, promote, and defend legal frameworks to ensure corporations respect human rights in their global operations.

We are writing to urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to act on the positive steps taken by both the Organization for American States (OAS) in its June 2014 resolution, calling on the Commission to advise States on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs),1 and the UN Human Rights Council in its June 2014 resolution, calling for Member States to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of business and human rights frameworks, including the UNGPs.2 In light of the above developments, we request a meeting with the Commission in early 2015 to discuss business and human rights issues in the region. We also urge IACHR to systematically engage OAS Member States to develop NAPs on business and human rights in order to ensure regional uptake of the UNGPs and to further the advancement of human rights in the context of business activities.

To do so effectively would help build on the leadership of several governments already developing NAPs in the region, including the United States government, which announced in September 2014 that it would develop a NAP on responsible business conduct,3 and the Chilean Government, which announced at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in December 2014 that it has begun the NAP process and will look to the Commission for advisement throughout this process.

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Organization of American States [OAS], Resolution Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Business, OAS AG/doc.5452/14 rev.1 (May 29, 2014).

2 Human Rights Council Res. A/HRC/26/L.1. Rep. of the Human Rights Council, 26th Sess., June 10-27, 2014 (June 27, 2014) available at http://www.norway-geneva.org/EFTA1/Statements/26th-Session-of-the-HumanRights-Council/Item-3-Promotion-and-protection-of-human-rights/Business-and-Human-Rights-Resolution/#.U63LWGSxPgJ. 3 White House, FACT SHEET: The U.S. Global Anticorruption Agenda, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2014/09/24/fact-sheet-us-global-anticorruption-agenda (last visited Dec. 10, 2014)

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NAPs on business and human rights are an important step towards building coherency in policy, practice, and enforcement of protections for human rights, labor rights, and the environment across governments. Business impacts these rights in myriad ways, and strong measures of accountability and oversight must be put in place to prevent harms from occurring, mitigate such harms when they are occurring, and ensure access to meaningful remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuse once harms have already occurred.

Already, governments around the world, including in the Americas, have begun this process.

In addition to the steps taken by the United States and Chile, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland have already released NAPs, and several other governments are in the process of doing so.4 Moreover, the European Union and several European governments have bilaterally engaged with several Latin American governments to encourage adoption of the UNGPs and the development of NAPs across the region.

In addition, there has been active advocacy by civil society groups and other stakeholders in the region for NAPs to be developed. For example, ICAR has collaborated with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), which is Denmark’s national human rights institution, to produce a toolkit on both the process and content requirements for an effective NAP. In developing this toolkit, we undertook a global program of consultation with nearly 300 representatives of governments, civil society, businesses, investors, academia, national human rights institutions, and regional and international organizations. This included a dialogue on business and human rights in the Latin American region, which took place in Bogotá, Colombia on March 17-18, 2014. This multi-stakeholder event brought together approximately 64 participants from inside and outside the Latin America region, including representatives from governments, civil society, indigenous organizations, academia, the business and investor communities, national human rights institutions, and international organizations. Additional consultations were held in Brussels, Belgium; Accra, Ghana; London, United Kingdom; and New Delhi, India between October 2013 and April 2014.

Several stakeholders in the region have already engaged with the NAPs Toolkit, and Chile is using it to conduct its NAP process. We encourage the Commission to engage with our NAPs Toolkit also and to use our criteria as benchmarks in creating awareness and uptake of the NAPs agenda in the region. The report and toolkit can be found at http://accountabilityroundtable.org/napsreport/.5 We expect that NAPs developed by governments in the Americas will be credible, rightsoriented plans to implement and act upon the various commitments made in national and international fora.6 We further expect that NAPs will include clear action on important issues such as access to effective remedy for victims of business-related harms and the 4

For updates on countries’ progress in developing NAPs on business and human rights, see http://businesshumanrights.org/en/un-guiding-principles/implementation-tools-examples/implementation-by-governments/bytype-of-initiative/national-action-plans.

5 See DANISH INST. FOR HUMAN RIGHTS & INT’L CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY ROUNDTABLE, NATIONAL ACTION PLANS ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A TOOLKIT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION, AND REVIEW OF STATE COMMITMENTS TO BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORKS (2014), available at http://accountabilityroundtable.org/analysis/napsreport/.

6 For example, on the issue of internet freedom, the Commission has already articulated that, in the region, the private sector must act in accordance with international human rights standards and principles. See ORG. OF AMERICAN STATES & INTER-AMERICAN COMM’N ON HUMAN RIGHTS, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE INTERNET (2013), available at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/2014_04_08_Internet_ENG%20_WEB.pdf.

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incorporation of human rights considerations into reporting frameworks, procurement regimes, and trade agreements. Finally, we expect that the process in developing NAPs will include robust consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders, including civil society organizations, communities, human rights defenders, and others negatively impacted by corporate activity or their representatives.

In conclusion, we urge the Commission to take on the issue of business and human rights squarely in its work program and to support the development of National Action Plans on business and human rights with earnest.

We stand ready to assist you in this endeavor.

Yours Sincerely,

Amol Mehra, Esq. Director International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) amol@accountabilityroundtable.org TO: Commissioner Paulo Vannuchi Executive Secretary Emilio Alvarez CC: Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Assistant Executive Secretary Mario L贸pez-Garelli, Senior Human Rights Specialist Maria Claudia Pulido, Senior Human Rights Specialist Norma Colledani, Human Rights Specialist Imelda Gonzalez, Secretary of Executive Paloma Mu帽oz Quick, Human Rights and Business Consultant

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