Discussion of the UNDP Recommendations for the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights
12.02.2024
On February 12, 2024, the Secretariat of the National Contact Point of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NCP) took part in a closed discussion of recommendations to the National Action Plan in the field of business and human rights.organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted the Guiding Principles of Business in the Field of Human Rights (the UN Guidelines), which subsequently became a platform for the development of National Action Plans (NAP) in the field of business and human rights. The National Action Plan is the most convenient and optimal format for implementing the UN Guidelines. More than 30 countries have developed and adopted their NAP, which are approved for an average period of 3-5 years. After this period, some countries (Belgium, Germany), after evaluating the effectiveness of the NAP, decide to develop a second version of the NAP. The Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 8, 2023 on the "Action Plan in the field of human rights and supremacy of law" instructed the creation of a working group under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan to develop a package of recommendations in the field of business and human rights. As part of a closed discussion, representatives of government agencies, the quasi-public sector, trade unions, and non-governmenta.organizations reviewed the initial recommendations compiled by international experts from UNDP. The presentation and discussion of the recommendations were divided into 3 areas of the UN Guidelines. Tatyana Zinovich, Head of the Legal Policy Research Center, noted the following recommendations in the field of state obligations to protect human rights from negative influence from business: - Create a working group to prepare an analysis of the applicability of national legislation to international business activities; - Introduce the principle of corporate respect for human rights into legislation; - Develop Guidelines for monitoring and excluding joint-stock companies that contribute to or are responsible for certain gross violations of norms, including human rights violations. Olena Uvarova, Head of the international laboratory "Business and Human Rights", noted the necessary recommendations in the field of corporate responsibility and respect for human rights: - Platform for dialogue and exchange of best practices; - Communication with the general public through articles, newspaper columns, company profiles, expert analyses and interviews; - Participation in forums for dialogue with representatives of local communities, the private sector, NGOs and the scientific community. As for the last direction regarding access to legal remedies, recommendations were shared by Dina Masanova, Specialist in the UNDP Business and Human Rights project: - Reducing the presence of the prosecutor's office in non-criminal types of legal proceedings, and for the supervision of judicial decisions; - Develop specialized laws and regulations that formalize the powers, duties and financing of the Commissioner for Children's Rights and the Commissioner for the Rights of Vulnerable Communities; - Develop a normative legal act regulating the procedure and mechanism for execution of decisions of the UN human rights treaty bodies in Kazakhstan; - Use the NCP platform to spread responsible business conduct standards more widely. In conclusion, the participants noted the work done by the UNDP experts, and also agreed to provide suggestions and comments on the proposed recommendations. In addition, UNDP expects the formation of a Working Group at the government level on Human rights in Business, which will further discuss the application of the proposed recommendations.
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