BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

a greater coordination and coherence within governments on the range of public policy areas and can provide a platform for an ongoing multi-stakeholder dialogue on issues that relate to business and human rights. 30 The process of implementing the Guiding Principles in the Czech Republic was launched in December 2015. Drafting of a national action plan was initiated by two governmental departments and led by the Office of the Minister for Human Rights. The Government approved the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights for the period 2017–2022 on 23 October 2017. The document covers all three pillars of the Guiding Principles and it sets tasks for governmental departments and formulates recommendations to businesses. It is envisaged that a thorough study will be commissioned to assess the current state of play in the area of business and human rights in the Czech Republic. According to available studies, 31 the existing national action plans contain a commitment to the UN Guiding Principles and they address thematic and sector-specific human rights issues. Most governments conducted some form of consultations with stakeholders to inform the drafting process. Probably the most significant weakness of action plans assessed so far is that they do not sufficiently explore new regulatory options but rather describe measures which the governments already adopted in the past. It further seems that the issue of effective remedies for the victims has been neglected. 32 A consistent failure to conduct national baseline assessments to inform about the content of the national action plans was registered as well. Even though action plans predominantly focus on past actions, a few concrete legislative measures adopted by individual EU Member States may be presented as examples of good practice. In 2010, the United Kingdom passed the Bribery Act, which introduced the offence of corporate failure to prevent bribery and a due diligence model with significant legal consequences for non-compliance. Another example is the new French law on corporate social responsibility 33 which provides for a specific reporting and risk management regime that requires large companies to plan for, anticipate, and make efforts to avoid harmful impact on human rights, e.g. with regard to health and environment. In the Netherlands, a new act establishing due diligence standards with respect to the problem of child labour has been adopted. It requires companies to develop and apply strategies in their supply chains and sanctions non-compliance. 34 The corporate due diligence in respecting human rights has been incorporated also into the German national action plan. The Federal Government articulated its expectation that all enterprises introduce the corporate due diligence in a manner commensurate with 30 UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights: Guidance on National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights, Geneva, 2015, p. 1. 31 ICAR, ECCJ: Assessment of existing National action Plans on Business and Human Rights, November 2015, pp. 4-5. 32 BLACKBURN, Daniel. Removing barriers: How a treaty on business and human rights could improve access to remedy for victims . International Centre for Trade Union Rights, 2017 (available at https://www.somo. nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Removing-barriers-web.pdf). 33 LOI n° 2017-399 du 27 mars 2017 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés meres et des entreprises donneuses d’ordre. 34 BLACKBURN, op. cit., p. 52

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