On Business and Human Rights (BHR)
Consultation-Workshop with Civil Society Sector on the Development of the National Action Plan on BHR

HSF

The activity was well attended with thirty-six participants (36) representing twenty-one (21) civil society organizations, three (3) government agencies including CHR, and key officers of UNDP and HSF.

The main objective of the activity is to be able to get the commitment from the CSOs on the next steps for the development of the NAP on BHR. As part of efforts to facilitate a common understanding on the development of the NAP-BHR in light of the operational framework that was developed recently, key presentations and discussions were made on the (i) United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights and UNGP on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights; (ii) Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2017-2022 relevant to the development of the NAP-BHR; (iii) UN Guidelines on Developing a NAP on BHR and sample of NAPs on BHR adopted by other countries; (iv) Update and take-out from the National Anti-Poverty Commission’s (NAPC) Anti-Poverty Summit; and (v) Stock-taking of the work done by CHR on BHR. A plenary presentation and small group workshop on the proposed framework for the development of the NAP-BHR was facilitated by UNDP to give the participants an opportunity to present their recommendations and plan of action. The team of resource persons/facilitators came from NEDA, NAPC, PAHRA and CHR.

HSF

Moving forward, the participants formed a Technical Working Group (TWG) to represent civil society as one of the three (3) sectors (the other two are the government and business enterprises) toward the development and crafting of the NAP-BHR. The CSO TWG will meet early next month to discuss their proposed plans and activities related to the NAP-BHR.

The next consultation-workshop will be spearheaded by the government, to be followed by the business sector in November 2016.