Inviting submissions to track regulatory and policy trends -- BHR Forum 2019

An interesting opportunity from the Working Group. It means to foster some carefully managed dialogue between and among states and the rest of us. This has the potential to add a new and interesting layer to the business of human rights in economic activity.  Thos able to participate are encouraged to do so.  

Be aware, though that these are meant to be ultra summary reports--2 pages maximum, and that the Working Group and its staff will exercise discretion in which of the submissions it will publish.  NGOs and business should also consider alternative avenues for developing and publishing this valuable information. It is not clear that almost 8 years after the establishment of the Working Group system under the UNGP that the three critical actors--states, NGOs, and enterprises--ought to be tightly bound to any organ for the development of its work and its contribution to this important area.

Moore information below and HERE. 

The Forum provides an opportunity for dialogue with and between governments to take stock of and provide recommendations for their implementation of the State duty to protect. As part of a longer-term strategy for the Forum, the 2019 event will seek to encourage greater information sharing by governments and contribute to building a more solid evidence-base for stock-taking on trends and emerging practice.

Since 2012, Forum discussions have shed light on efforts by Governments to implement the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. However, such tracking to date has not been sufficiently systematic and comprehensive. In order to fill this gap, the 2019 Forum will initiate a survey on government implementation envisaged to be carried out at regular intervals and presented at the Forum, to help facilitate peer learning and compile information on Government action and initiatives to implement the Guiding Principles. This effort is in line with the Human Rights Council’s welcome of the Working Group’s work "to collect and disseminate information on ongoing processes to develop national action plans and other relevant data on global progress in the implementation of the Guiding Principles" and the Council’s call to invite States and all relevant stakeholders to submit information to and engage with the Working Group on their national action plans and other relevant initiatives to implement the Guiding Principles (res. 35/7, para. 5).

Previous surveys by the Working Group

Working Group page on national action plans

Tracking of State implementation by NGOs and others:

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/government-action-platform
https://globalnaps.org/
http://www.bhrinlaw.org

In addition, in the spirit of working together and in line with the Forum mandate, all stakeholders are invited to submit brief reports on relevant legal, regulatory and policy developments at either global, regional or national levels. Published submissions will be posted either by country or by region, or under global developments. The deadline for submissions is 10 September.

All governments are encouraged to participate in the implementation survey that will be disseminated in the first half of 2019. Governments may also submit brief country reports on their implementation efforts. Governments may submit their reports on an ongoing basis.

Submissions will help inform several Forum sessions, including the sessions focused on trends and challenges in each of the UN regions.

Guidance for submissions on State implementation:

Guidance for State reports:

• focus on efforts to implement the Guiding Principles
• max 2 pages
• submitted in one of the UN languages
• the aim is to encourage such reporting on a yearly basis in order to enable continued and systematic tracking of implementation efforts.

Guidance for submissions by other stakeholders:

• Submissions should be based on credible, specific, reliable, objective, well-documented information relating to pillar I, II and III developments on global, regional or national level
• Focused on legal, regulatory, policy developments
• Submissions should not be focused on individual cases, and should be solution-oriented
• Max 2 pages
• Preferably in English, or in French or Spanish
• The Working Group will exercise discretion on publication
• Submissions are posted as received, and not edited

All submissions should be sent to forumbhr@ohchr.org.