Mongolia becomes one of the seven Asian countries to have business and human rights program
Mongolia becomes one of the seven Asian countries to have business and human rights programme
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to promote responsible business practices with three key pillars including State’s duty to protect human rights in business operations, businesses’ responsibility to respect human rights, and both to provide remedies when violations occur. Since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic is causing more frequent human rights violations globally including Mongolia in public, social and business spheres requiring timely and urgent solutions.
Today, UNDP Mongolia officially launched the “Business and Human Rights in Asia: Enabling Sustainable Economic Growth through the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework” programme funded by the European Union Partnership Instrument and co-implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia with support from the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and Business and Human Rights Asia Programme.
The programme will be implemented in the next three years to support the Government of Mongolia to implement the UN Guiding Principles through the development and implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, which began in 2018 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia. The programme will also focus on addressing the capacity gaps and challenges, supporting awareness-raising and advocacy among key stakeholders including the relevant government agencies, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, human rights defenders and local chamber of commerce and industries in Mongolia.
During the event, UNDP introduced several human rights management tools for businesses including “Human Rights Impact Assessment Guideline” and “Human Rights Due Diligence: Covid-19 Rapid Self-Assessment for Businesses” that will help businesses to further evaluate their human rights impact. As part of the programme, the small grant is announced for civil society actors engaged in human rights protection, recognition, and advocacy in Mongolia, in the greater context of defending human rights until 7 May 2021.
Mongolian businesses will also benefit substantially not only on human rights perspective but also they will be able to comply with the requirements of many of the international economic incentive arrangements for sustainable development and good governance, such as the EU’s GSP+, which ask businesses to ratify and implement the core international conventions on human and labour rights.
“We are looking forward to working with all our partners and stakeholders to ensure successful adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Mongolia that focuses on greater access to an effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial, for victims of business-related human rights violations,” said Ms Nashida Sattar, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative.
“The European Union has a strong interest to improve implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights worldwide to enhance the level playing field for its companies, ensure better prevention of abuses connected to business activities and access to remedy when abuses occur. I hope Mongolia will be the next country to launch the National action plans on the implementation of the Guiding Principles. The European Union is ready to share experiences and contribute to the process” said Mr Marco Ferri, Deputy Head of Mission of the European Union Delegation in Mongolia.
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