icc working group on Business and Human Rights
Draft Record OF MEETING HIGHLIGHTS AND OUTCOMES
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Participating Member Institutions
Africa
· Ms. Lauretta Lamptey, Commissioner, Ghana Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice
· Ms. Sophie Kalinde, Commissioner, Malawi Human Rights Commission
Americas
· Mr. David Langtry, Acting Chief Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission (Chair)
· Ms. Myriam Montrat, Director General, Discrimination Prevention Branch, Canadian Human Rights Commission (Chair)
· Mr. Larry Devoe, Director of Legal Services, Ombudsman of Venezuela
Asia-Pacific
· Ms. Ma. Nerissa Navarro-Piamonte, Director, Strategic and Development Planning Office, National Human Rights Commission of the Philippines (Vice Chair)
Europe
· Mr. Michael Windfuhr, Deputy Director, German Institute of Human Rights
· Dr. Claire Methven O’Brien, Special Advisor, Human Rights and Business, Danish Institute for Human Rights
· Ms. Nora Götzmann, Advisor, Human Rights and Business, Danish Institute for Human Rights
Observers
· Professor Alan Miller, European Chair, Scottish Human Rights Commission
Regrets
· Office of the ICC Chair, National Centre for Human Rights of Jordan
· United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)-National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms Section
1. Opening and Welcome to New Members
The International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) Working Group on Business and Human Rights (the Working Group) met on the sidelines of the European Group of National Human Rights Institutions’ (NHRIs) regional workshop on Business and Human Rights.
Mr. David Langtry, Acting Chief Commissioner and Ms. Myriam Montrat, Director General of Discrimination Prevention, representing the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) as Working Group Chair, opened the meeting and welcomed members.
Commissioner Langtry confirmed several membership changes effective 15 August 2012 for new two-year terms:
· the Danish Institute for Human Rights, replacing the Scottish Commission as the second European representative.
· the Malawi Commission, having replaced the Kenyan Commission as second African regional member; and
· renewal of the Ombudsman of Venezuela as the second Americas regional member.
Other Working Group members who shared their regrets or were not in attendance included Indonesia (or its replacement as of August 15, 2012, as yet to be confirmed) and the Office of the ICC Chair.
2. Agenda Review and Adoption
The agenda was reviewed and adopted.
3. Priorities for Action
Given that this was an informal meeting, it was agreed that the Working Group would approve the draft 23 March 2012 Meeting Record at its next formal meeting on 8 November in Amman, Jordan.
The objective of this meeting was to share updates on selected priorities the Working Group had agreed to advance and to focus attention on Working Group preparations leading up to the 11th international biennial conference of NHRIs in November.
Meeting highlights and outcomes follow.
BHR Fact Sheets
Fact sheets under development include:
1. NHRIs and UN Global Compact (UNGC) Local Networks- content is finalized for formatting and the fact sheet is to be prepared in time for the Jordan biennial
2. BHR and NHRIs (BHR 101) – to be prepared by Denmark in collaboration with the Canadian Commission in time for UN Forum in December. Content will match the NHRI-BHR training as much as possible;
3. BHR and Women's and Children's Rights – lead by the Philippines and to be prepared in time for the Jordan biennial;
4. BHR- Food, water and the environment – lead by Germany and to be prepared in time for the December UN Forum
5.Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security– lead by Germany; and to be prepared in time for the December UN Forum. The content of this document is ready to be translated from German
6. NHRIs and OECD National Contact Points (NCPs)– lead by Denmark and to be developed in time for the Jordan biennial to support signing of the MOU
7. BHR in the Second Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review 1 of 2 – There will be a set of two fact sheets: the first procedural and the second substantive. The first one will be lead by the Canadian Commission and prepared in time for the Jordan biennial; and
8. BHR in the Second Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review 2 of 2 – the Danish Institute will proceed this second fact sheet by the UN Annual Forum.
In summary: The goal is for all fact sheets to be developed by the UN Forum in December; including four for Jordan (UNGC, OECD NCPs, UPR 1 of 2, and Women and children’s rights) and the remaining four by the UN Forum (BHR 101, FAO, and Food, water and the environment and UPR 2 of 2)
Working Group members agreed to strive to have the fact sheets uniform in appearance and length, meaning in terms of layout; a length of 4-6 pages; calling each by the ICC Working Group on BHR’s name; and noting NHRI contributions and any logos at the back.
Action: finalize fact sheets in accordance with the above.
Action: the CHRC will provide guidelines for timelines for fact sheet development
NHRI BHR Training
The ICC Operational Plan and ICC Working Group on BHR’s Strategic Action Plan have focused on capacity building for NHRIs; a central component being training.
The Danish Institute indicated that further to the written report they submitted for the 23 March 2012 Working Group Meeting, they remain committed yet behind to the training development. A four month delay in developing the work was related to delays in funding. DIHR expects to have a training programme in hand by the end of the year.
Building on what they developed as a concept with the Working Group and what they piloted with the Sierra Leone and Algerian NHRIs last year, the format now is intended to be a four week e-learning course (i.e. NHRI officials working remotely in their NHRIs with facilitation by a course provider of another NHRI, engaging with material reading and doing exercises over the internet followed by a one week face to face training that builds on the e-learning. A companion tool to that training course will be a written manual by ICC Working Group on BHR for NHRIs. The manual may not be finished this year but the training course will.
The Chair extended its deep appreciation for the developmental work DIHR has been doing on behalf of the Working Group. The WG mandated DIHR to continue this developmental work on its behalf.
Action: DIHR will consult with the Working Group on the draft manual and on possible regional supplements to the manual and the training. Regional members of the Working Group may be invited to in fact develop the content of the regional supplements.
As to funding, OHCHR-NIRMS had previously agreed to fund the publication of the hard copy manual- albeit for this year.
Action: DIHR has agreed to reconfirm the willingness of the OHCHR to fund a publication next year.
Action: By the time of the biennial conference in November, the Danish Institute will see if they are sufficiently advanced to present something to Working Group members for review; so that the Working Group may in turn speak to the NHRI-BHR training at the UN Forum in December.
Action: Add ‘practical follow up on training, and on the FAO Voluntary Guidelines’, to the 8 November Working Group meeting agenda. The German Institute, for instance, could meet with FAO to discuss drawing on FAO funding for its large implementation project, to conduct training (particularly on monitoring and implementation of the UN standard on land use, tenure and acquisition). In this way the Working Group can build out from the general NHRI training to thematically focused issues like land conflicts. It was noted that no specific timeline has been set for FAO funding.
Moving ahead, the intention is to have the Working Group name associated with the training and to send it on to regional networks for onward distribution. The Chair indicated that is also the intention to promote the Danish Institute in being able to assist in the training delivery. Working Group member inputs and potential participation as to regional training delivery and/or participation will be welcomed.
For information: the Francophone Association of NHRIs and International Service for Human Rights, among others, are also providing NHRI training in BHR. The Working Group Chair has also been exploring joint training with OHCHR for their country teams.
BHR Section of the ICC Website and Compendium of NHRI Practices
The Chair provided an update relating to the request sent to the ICC Regional Coordinators to reaffirm the top BHR-related issues in their region by 1 August 2012- being to see whether the issues remained the same as those originally identified in the unpublished BHR baseline survey.
· The African and Asia Pacific regions confirmed that their priority issues remain the same, e.g. discrimination, child labour, issues relating to the environment, food and water, workers rights, land and property rights for Africa; and discrimination, child labour, issues relating to the environment, food and water, workers rights for Asia Pacific.
· For the Americas, while four individual NHRI submissions were received, at a regional level there was no confirmation that the issues had changed, e.g. discrimination and issues relating to the environment, food and water.
· The European regional chair shared that the region would confirm its priority issues pending the outcomes of this week’s regional workshop. The main regional issues last identified were discrimination, child labour, issues relating to the environment, food and water, workers rights, and concerns regarding indigenous peoples.
The Working Group had last discussed factoring these inputs into Working Group products such as the BHR 101 Fact Sheet, ICC website materials, and regional content for the NHRI-BHR training. It was also agreed that NHRI case studies be posted on the ICC Website.
Action: Working Group members agreed to submit two case studies each regarding implementation of the UN Guiding Principles. Case studies could also be showcased in Geneva in December at the UN Forum.
Action: The Chair will develop and forward a one-page case study template to Working Group members along with development timelines.
Action: The Chair will also approach ex-members (e.g. Kenya and Korea, etc), as well as France.
Action: The Chair will also develop guidelines that define the standard the Working Group is setting for case studies to be considered.
Action: The Chair will post the Scottish Commission case study on public procurement and two case studies from Venezuela that are ready.
Outcome: use the term “case study” OR “proven practice”- to recognize that what works for one NHRI, or is “proven” for its circumstance, may not work for another. Ask NHRIs to identify what is the generic good practice that maybe transferable and what negative learnings may have come from their experience.
ICC-Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) MOU
The Danish Institute has engaged with the OECD and ICC Preparatory Committee for the upcoming biennial conference to secure a formal signing by representatives of the ICC and OECD in Amman, given the ICC Chair and ICC Working Group’s approval of the MOU that has been developed.
The MOU serves as a platform for cooperation- to increase awareness, engage in joint training, and possibly for NHRIs to engage in or with National Contact Points.
As a next step, it will be open to the Working Group to identify activities we think would be good to undertake.
Action: Place this discussion point on an upcoming meeting agenda.
ICC-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) MOU
In July 2012 a meeting was held between the OHCHR-UNDP-ICC. The European Group of NHRIs Regional Chair, Professor Alan Miller, identified BHR as a possible area of cooperation given the UN Guiding Principles. The meeting dynamic was such that there was no detailed discussion on concrete actions relating to BHR.
It was however agreed in general terms that the post Rio+20 landscape was important and that the role of NHRIs and the ICC Working Group on BHR was important with regard to the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Professor Miller said that concretisation of this, along with other areas of strategic importance to the partnership, will be possible in Amman this November when the UNDP regional policy advisers will be in attendance and can interact with the ICC Working Group and regional group meetings.
Action: ICC Working Group members were invited to engage actively with UNDP regional policy advisers, including at the Jordan biennial, to explore areas of cooperation.
Engagement with the UN Working Group on BHR
The upcoming, first annual multi-stakeholder forum of the UN Working Group is set for 4-5 December 2012 in Geneva. The Chair strongly encouraged members with resources permitting to attend and indicated that the Working Group could seek to relay the outcomes of the 8 November 2012 BHR side event at this meeting.
Action: In Jordan, discuss a strategy as to ICC Working Group presence and contributions (including BHR fact sheets, for instance) at the annual forum.
Joint Planning with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Chair and Vice Chair of this Working Group met with Lene Wendland of the OHCHR to explore joint planning on BHR. Subsequently, her officers came to present at the last Working Group meeting on 23 March.
Since this time, the 2 July 2 report by the UN Secretary General provides a strong momentum for NHRIs to build upon in securing joint planning efforts with the OHCHR. It urges UN Resident Coordinators and country teams, for instance, to engage NHRIs. It identifies NHRIs as a ‘key constituency’ in need of capacity building to support implementation of the UN Guiding Principles.
Action: The Chair will be actively pursuing discussions with OHCHR including seeking an in-person meeting with them on the sidelines of the December 2012 annual forum, as our goal is to mainstream NHRI capacity building in BHR in relation to OHCHR’s strategic planning.
UN Global Compact (UNGC) Local Networks and Human Rights Working Group