National baseline assessment on business and human rights in Zambia

Foster Hamuyube

National baseline assessment on the business responsibility to respect human rights (UNGPs Pillar 2) in Zambia.

Since 2011, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (the Institute) has been collaborating with the Zambia Human Rights Commission to advance the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in Zambia.

In 2016, the Zambian Human Rights Commission completed the the National Baseline Assessment on Business and Human Rights. This report examined the measures that the Zambian government has taken to protect human rights from the adverse impacts of business activities through laws, policies, and regulation, as well as the provision of remedy mechanisms. The analysis has had as starting point the state duty to protect human rights including its role in providing effective remedies for business-related human rights abuses as outlined under Pillars 1 and 3 of the UNGPs.

The Zambia Human Rights Commission has used the findings from the baseline to engage with the government and other stakeholders and highlight the need for a National Action Plan (NAP) on business and human rights. The importance of a NAP on business and human rights was further reinforced through a recommendation to Zambia made during the 28th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in November 2017. The government of Zambia accepted the respective UPR recommendation.

In 2020, as part of its continuing efforts to support the government to develop a NAP, the Zambia Human Rights Commission - with technical support from the Institute –supplemented the baseline assessment with an analysis of the integration of human rights in the policies and practices of 24 companies from the agriculture and mining sectors as outlined in Pillar II of the UNGPs. The findings published in the report “The corporate responsibility to respect human rights. The case of mining and agriculture sectors in Zambia" reveal that the companies surveyed still have a long way to go to understand their responsibilities in human rights terms.

Together with the recommendations in the national baseline assessment, these findings will be used to encourage businesses and the government to strengthen business respect for human rights and build momentum for the development of a NAP on business and human rights.