On 17 January 2024, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in partnership with Roehampton University, University of London’s School of Advanced Study, Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Law, and EarthRights International hosted a workshop so that civil society actors could promote meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders in the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) processes carried out by business enterprises.
The objective of the workshop was to discuss ways to strengthen HRDD as a complement to legal liability and redress, serving as a tool to minimize human rights abuses or the risk thereof, caused by companies operating in the Mekong region, which have resulted in harm to populations, especially in vulnerable communities.
Twenty civil society representatives involved in monitoring the human rights impacts of investments in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand participated in the workshop.
Under international human rights law, part of the obligation to protect against human rights abuses by businesses involves ensuring that companies carry out a series of due diligence measures. As outlined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), HRDD involves identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for adverse human rights impacts that business enterprises may cause or contribute to through their own activities, or which may be directly linked to their operations, products, or services by business relationships.
At the workshop, participants were provided insights into the State’s duties and business responsibilities under the UNGPs, with a focus on the concept of HRDD, its scope, and the importance of ensuring that it is an ‘ongoing’ process. While laws in several countries require HRDD to be conducted with the involvement of stakeholders, clear guidelines on how to ensure that such participation is meaningful, as stipulated by the UNGPs and relevant international treaties and standards, are lacking. Participants discussed how CSOs may play an essential role in ensuring such meaningful participation.
Participants also assessed the application of HRDD in practice in their respective countries, including in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand. They discussed whether the consultation process they observed engaged all spectrums of stakeholders meaningfully, shared lessons learned from past HRDD processes, and brainstormed ideas for future strategies. Challenges identified included instances of lack of transparency, restricted access to information, and limited public participation for the affected communities in any due diligence measures in place. These challenges have also allegedly led to the deprivation of means of livelihood, posing a threat to the affected communities’ human rights.
The workshop concluded with the participants agreeing to explore the potential establishment of an HRDD Network to continue to exchange knowledge and information about their common challenges and experiences and to discuss future strategies to strengthen the role of CSOs in HRDD processes.
Background
Under international human rights standards, including the UNGPs, HRDD should involve meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders. Business enterprises should pay special attention to any particular human rights impacts on “individuals from groups or populations that may be at heightened risk of vulnerability or marginalization, and bear in mind the different risks that may be faced by women and men.”
Among the countries in which participants work, only Thailand has a concrete framework taking steps toward the conducting of HRDD by business enterprises.
Subject to Thailand’s 2nd National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights Phase (2023-2027), several ministries in Thailand are tasked with encouraging large enterprises and listed businesses that use migrant workers as their main production force to conduct HRDD as a measure to prevent the exploitation of workers. Additionally, they are tasked with providing knowledge and understanding, issuing measures to encourage businesses to conduct HRDD to protect workers in the supply chain, and studying guidelines for the implementation of laws or measures that require businesses to conduct comprehensive HRDD.
Further Reading
For more information on alleged human rights abuses committed by companies and Mekong States failure to protect against such abuses, as documented by the ICJ and partners in the Mekong region:
Cambodia: ICJ makes a joint submission on SEZs to the Universal Periodic Review (October 2023)
Lao PDR: ICJ and its partners make a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (August 2023)
China: International Commission of Jurists and its partner make submission to the Universal Periodic Review (July 2023)
Cambodia: ICJ submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (January 2023)
Myanmar: amend Special Economic Zones Law to protect human rights – new ICJ report (2017)
Contact
Melissa Upreti, ICJ Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, e: melissa.upreti@icj.org
Sanhawan Srisod, Associate International Legal Adviser, ICJ Asia Pacific Programme; e: sanhawan.srisod@icj.org