UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

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The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights , English UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN doc A / HRC / 17/31) were in 2011 from the UN Human Rights Council adopted. They represent a global instrument for remedying and preventing human rights violations in economic contexts. They are based on the existing human rights obligations and, in 31 principles, explain basic obligations and responsibilities within the framework of economic human rights. They give recommendations to governments and companies on how to implement them.

They are considered to be one of the most important international standards on corporate responsibility and human rights due diligence and show that economic actors have a responsibility and duty to protect human rights.

The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights consist of 31 principles, which are summarized in the three-pillar model "Protection, Respect and Remedy":

  • State obligation to protect human rights. Under international law, states are obliged to protect people from business-related human rights violations - through appropriate policies, regulation and jurisdiction
  • Corporate responsibility: respect for human rights. Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights. They should end possible negative human rights impacts of their business activities and seek redress.
  • Access to effective legal remedies. As part of their obligation to protect, states must give those affected by human rights violations access to judicial and extrajudicial means so that business-related human rights violations can be investigated, punished and redressed.

history

The subject of business and human rights was and is controversial in the United Nations. The guiding principles are the only basic consensual text.

Many countries do not have sufficient legislation and do not have the appropriate tools to adequately control and steer economic actors. In particular, the control of global corporations and multinational companies is very sketchy.

To counteract this, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were adopted in 2011. The preparatory work for this was carried out by the then UN special envoy for companies and human rights, John Ruggie, with broad participation from private and state actors. The three guiding principles for business and human rights were formulated under the heading “Protect, Respect, Remedy” (protection, attention, remedy).

The guiding principles were adopted in the same resolution that created the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights .

background

Human rights violations in global supply chains

There are many human rights violations in global supply chains . The reason for this is, among other things, a lack of legal binding force for companies and a lack of protection of human rights in the production facilities. The violations of human rights often occur in countries in the global south , where production and processing mostly takes place. Often, minimum wages are not guaranteed, people are forced to work overtime and job security is not guaranteed. German companies are repeatedly directly or indirectly involved in human rights violations abroad. According to a 2015 study by the University of Maastricht, Germany ranks fifth in an international comparison of human rights complaints against companies based in the country.

Example textile sector

In many places in the international textile industry, compliance with and protection of labor and human rights is not guaranteed. In cotton production, smallholders in countries in the global south often work under precarious working conditions. Accidents with injuries and deaths occur again and again in the textile production facilities. In the disaster of Rana Plaza , the collapse of a multistory building with textile factories in Bangladesh on April 24, 2013 killed more than 1,100 workers.

Example IT

Numerous human rights violations also occur in the production chain of electrical appliances around the world. B. in the extraction of raw materials and the manufacture of PCs and smartphones. The raw material coltan , which is used to manufacture smartphones, for example, is primarily mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . There has been a war over resources there for years, and several million people have already died. Labor and human rights are not respected in the extraction of raw materials in the mines, and children also have to work in the mines.

Implementation at state level: The National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights

33 countries are currently working on a National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights. Some European countries such as Denmark, Finland, Great Britain and, for example, Colombia as the first South American country have already adopted a National Action Plan. In a 2011 guideline, the EU Commission requested the EU member states to implement the UN Guiding Principles at national level.

Germany

The development process began in November 2014 under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office. In addition to the six responsible ministries (for foreign affairs , labor and social affairs , justice , business , development cooperation and the environment ), three representatives of the business associations (BDA, BDI and DIHK) took part, two Representatives of associations of non-governmental organizations (Forum Menschenrechte and Venro), a representative of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) and two advisory members (DIMR and econsense) in the process.

The National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights was originally supposed to be adopted by the German Federal Cabinet in spring 2016 as part of the implementation at national level of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. At the beginning of June 2016, the six o. responsible ministries agreed on a draft. In the summer of 2016, the Ministry of Finance came under fire for attempting to remove all human rights obligations from the action plan in the further development process of the National Action Plan. On December 21, 2016, the Federal Government adopted the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights. In the coalition agreement of the 19th electoral term of the Bundestag , the Union and the SPD agreed, “If the effective and comprehensive review of the NAP 2020 comes to the conclusion that the voluntary self-commitment of the companies is not sufficient, we will act nationally and advocate an EU-wide Use regulation ". According to a report in the daily newspaper , the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development already drafted a "Value Chain Act" at the beginning of 2019.

Numerous civil society organizations criticize the action plan as not being sufficiently binding. The German action plan for business and human rights has come under fire because it does not contain any mandatory elements and, according to individual NGOs, often falls short of the efforts of other countries. In terms of the consideration of human rights criteria in public procurement, Germany lags behind in European comparison. The initiative supply chain law therefore calls for the introduction of a binding supply chain law .

Other countries

In Great Britain and the USA there are partially binding guidelines on business and human rights. In France, a law was passed in February 2017 to make human rights due diligence mandatory for large companies. The law obliges large French companies to identify and prevent human rights risks - not only in their own company, but also in subsidiaries and along the supply chain. Violations can be punished with high fines. In Switzerland, the Group Responsibility Initiative is calling for a law to be introduced that obliges companies based in Switzerland to comply with human rights and environmental standards when they do activities abroad. In 2016, the initiative submitted the necessary signatures so that a referendum will be held on the initiative.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. ECCHR - European Center For Constitutional And Human Rights, accessed on September 13, 2016 .
  2. ↑ UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In: cora-netz.de. CorA - Corporate Accountability, accessed September 13, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Action plan “Business and Human Rights” - ambitious goals, insufficient implementation. Retrieved September 13, 2016 .
  4. ↑ National Action Plan. In: institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de. Retrieved September 1, 2016 .
  5. ↑ UN Guiding Principles. In: business-humanrights.org. Retrieved March 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Business and human rights German companies are said to be involved in human rights violations. development policy online, accessed on September 1, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Textile. In: institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de. Retrieved September 1, 2016 .
  8. ^ Claim for damages: KiK has to go to court because of factory fire. In: Zeit Online . August 30, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016 .
  9. ↑ emma: Pay Up! Retrieved September 1, 2016 (UK English).
  10. ↑ makeITfair. Germanwatch e. V., accessed on September 1, 2016 .
  11. ↑ What does my cell phone have to do with the war in the Congo? Retrieved September 1, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Coltan. Active against child labor, accessed September 1, 2016 .
  13. ↑ National Action Plan. In: institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de. Retrieved September 1, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Newsletter 02/2015. EPN Hessen e. V., accessed on September 1, 2016 .
  15. ↑ NAP WiMR in the original. (PDF) German Federal Government, accessed on May 22, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Voluntary or mandatory? In: world views. Retrieved September 13, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Business and Human Rights Action Plan: Not very ambitious. In: Misereor blog. Retrieved September 1, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Business and Human Rights Action Plan: Not very ambitious. September 5, 2016, accessed September 13, 2016 .
  19. ↑ National Action Plan “Business and Human Rights”. Retrieved January 31, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Hannes Koch: Patterns for a better world. In: taz.de . February 10, 2019, accessed April 9, 2019 .
  21. ↑ No courage to be more committed. (PDF) (No longer available online.) CorA, Forum Menschenrechte, Venro, Amnesty International, Bread for the World, germanwatch, Misereor, archived from the original on July 22, 2017 ; accessed on January 31, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / germanwatch.org
  22. ↑ Corporate responsibility in a European comparison. (PDF) germanwatch, Bread for the World, accessed on January 31, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Initiative Supply Chain Act: Initiative Supply Chain Act. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Global platform for comparing the National Action Plans. Retrieved December 4, 2017 (American English).
  25. ↑ Corporate Responsibility Initiative: Corporate Responsibility Initiative. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .