Discussing Business and Human Rights in Europe

2 December 2016

Today key stakeholders are discussing the implementation of human rights in business in Europe at a workshop i Copenhagen.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are hosting a workshop on Business and Human Rights in Europe today. With the subtitle "Next Steps in Strengthening Implementation and Accountability" the workshop aims to increase knowledge of the Recommendation of early 2016 from the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Committee, facilitate stakeholder dialogue on priority areas and needs, and generate proposals to forward to the Council of Europe High Level Seminar on the Recommendation to be held in June 2017.

Implementing the framework

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Framework and United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Since 2011, the UNGPs have attracted wide support, from governments, businesses, civil society and international organisations. In 2014, the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers welcomed the UNGPs in a Declaration that expressed strong support for their implementation by the member states.

This was followed by a drafting process in the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Committee (CDDH) that culminated with the adoption of a Recommendation in early 2016. The Recommendation builds on the UNGPs, in particular elaborating the implications of the European Convention of Human Rights, European Social Charter, and other CoE human rights standards in the context of business activities.

In addition, the Recommendation calls on CoE member states to develop National Action Plans on business and human rights. It further provides for the public sharing by member states of human rights and business National Action Plans, as well as the exchange of good practices, to be facilitated by the CoE. Therefore it is key to the implementation of the Recommendation that the members states are well informed of the content.

Proposals to the High Level Seminar

The CoE will hold a high-level seminar on the Recommendation in Strasbourg in June 2017 in the run-up to Denmark’s Presidency of the Council of Europe, commencing in November 2017. In advance of the seminar, and in order to be able to feed informed and considered stakeholder inputs into it, the current workshop thus aims to generate discussion amongst stakeholders about how the process of review and dialogue it provides for should be designed and organised, so as to maximise its impact in enhancing respect for human rights in the sphere of business, both by governments and businesses, amongst Council of Europe countries.