- Business and human rights in Asia – First UN regional forum, 19-20 April 2016
Priti Darooka
Important meeting
Business and human rights in Asia – First UN regional forum, 19-20 April 2016
GENEVA (5 April 2016) –
Companies, governments, NGOs, workers and community representatives will meet
in Doha, Qatar, from 19 to 20 April to discuss key business and human rights
issues in Asia.
The Asia Regional Forum on
Business and Human Rights is being convened by the United Nations Working Group
on Business and Human Rights with the support of the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights. It will bring together some 300 participants.
“Asian countries represent a
growing share of the global economy and have seen impressive growth over the
past decades. At the same time, there is increasing attention on companies’
adverse human rights impacts across all sectors,” said Dante Pesce, who chairs
the group of independent experts. “Preventing and addressing such impacts is a
defining human rights issue of our time.”
“This is the first time that the
UN is convening a regional Forum on this topic in Asia. It is a unique
opportunity to discuss the steps needed to ensure that business operations and
economic development projects do not undermine human rights,” said Pavel
Sulyandziga, vice-chair of the UN Working Group.
“Asia is a vast region, spanning
from Saudi Arabia in West Asia, to Indonesia in Southeast Asia, and China in
East Asia. The Forum will, therefore, address diverse issues, sometimes with a
sub-regional or sectorial lens,” added Mr. Pesce.
“The main focus will be to
identify how governments and companies can concretely meet their respective
human rights obligations and responsibilities, for example through developing
national action plans and better managing their supply chains,” he said.
The Forum will center on
implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights*,
which were endorsed by UN Member States in 2011 as the authoritative global
standard to prevent and manage the risk of business-related human rights harm.
Specific topics include: garment
sector supply chains; the rights of migrant workers; land investments; the
rights of indigenous peoples; mega sporting events; measures to prevent forced
and child labour; corporate reporting on human rights; and ways to ensure
access to effective remedy when harms occur.
Speakers at the Forum include:
·
John
Ruggie, author of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, who
will deliver the keynote address and speak about his soon-to-be-released
recommendations to FIFA on human rights;
·
Representatives
of Governments and inter-governmental organizations;
·
Industry
representatives from major Asian economies;
·
Multinational
corporations such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, EY Japan, Hewlett Packard Enterprise,
McDonald's, Microsoft, Repsol and Thai Union;
·
The
heads of the International Trade Union Confederation and of the International
Organization of Employers;
·
Workers
and indigenous peoples’ representatives from across Asia;
·
Non-governmental
organizations.
The event follows similar UN
Regional Forums in Africa in 2014 and Latin America and the Caribbean in 2013.
It will feed into the 2016 global UN Forum on Business and Human Rights to be
held from 14 to 16 November in Geneva.
The Asia Regional Forum is open
to the media. For queries about press accreditation, see contact details below.
(*) Read the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights (available in the six UN languages): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/Tools.aspx
ENDS
The
Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations and other business
enterprises
was established by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011. Its current
members are: Mr. Michael Addo, Mr. Dante Pesce (current Chairperson), and Mr.
Pavel Sulyandziga (current vice chair). Mr. Surya Deva was recently appointed
as a new member and will officially take up his functions on 1 May 2016. The
appointment of the fifth member of the Working Group will the made by the Human
Rights Council in June 2016. Learn more, log on to: www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/WGHRandtransnationalcorporationsandotherbusiness.aspx
The UN
Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human
Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in
the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent
fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms. Special Procedures mandate-holders are
independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to
address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of
the world. They are not UN staff and are independent from any government or
organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a
salary for their work. The Working Group reports to the Human Rights Council
and to the UN General Assembly.
Learn more
about the Asian Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights: www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/2016AsiaRegionalForum.aspx
Learn more
about the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, to be held in Geneva from 14
to 16 November 2016: www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Forum/Pages/2016ForumBHR.aspx
For additional
information and queries about press accreditation, please contact the
Working Group Secretariat at: regional...@ohchr.org / +41 22 91 79 657
or +41 22 91 79 323.
For media
inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya –
Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / xce...@ohchr.org)
For your
news websites and social media: Multimedia content & key messages
relating to our news releases are available on UN Human Rights social media
channels, listed below. Please tag us using the proper handles:
Twitter: @UNHumanRights
Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
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unitednationshumanrights
Google+: unitednationshumanrights
Youtube: unohchr
Tahmina Yesmin
Thanks for sharing this statement. It’s really interesting to know about this discussion. Asian countries are providing labor forces worldwide to support all business activities and profits. We need to think about the labor forces working in Garments factories (majority are women and under aged), migrant workers are working abroad with low payment, terrible working condition and no scope of bargaining.
What is the responsibility and accountability of these big companies and Gov. to protect human rights of these workers?
Many thanks again.
Tahmina
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