ENNHRI calls on the Council of Europe to strengthen the role and meaningful participation of relevant stakeholders – including NHRIs, civil society, trade unions, academia and business – in the review of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)3 on Human Rights and Business, CDDH(2021)13.

This submission to the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) comes in response to the draft report on the implementation of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)3 on Human Rights and Business, CDDH(2021)13. It includes a list of resources that can serve as a reference when updating the report, and supplements ENNHRI’s submission from August 2021.

In line with the Council of Europe process set forth in the Recommendation CM/Rec(2021)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the development and strengthening of effective, pluralist and independent national human rights institutions, the submission also advocates for stronger roles for and the meaningful participation of NHRIs and ENNHRI in the Council of Europe.

To ensure inclusive stakeholder consultation on the review of implementation of the Recommendation, ENNHRI recommends:

• Actively engaging with all relevant stakeholders, not only member States or stakeholders with Observer status;
• Ensuring transparency in the process by communicating in advance to all relevant stakeholders;
• Taking steps to support stakeholder engagement and build capacity where relevant (e.g. trainings, webinars, information sharing, active dissemination of the Recommendation in advance);
• Developing a process to receive input from all relevant stakeholders (this can include a broadly disseminated questionnaire, but can also include active processes to facilitate a dialogue, for example, in-person workshops and webinars, and providing an opportunity for all relevant stakeholders to provide input on a draft);
• Taking input received from stakeholders into consideration and ensuring that outputs are reflective of the input received; and,
• Allocating sufficient resources and capacity to the CDDH Secretariat for measures to facilitate stakeholder participation.

The submission will be presented at the 95th Plenary meeting of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), and was drafted by ENNHRI’s Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

» Read the submission.

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