BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

13 Czech National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights

Martin Archalous *

On October 23rd, 2017, the Government of the Czech Republic approved its first National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights. By this decision, the Czech Republic joined ever-growing group of countries that joined this successful international initiative. 1 This text explains what a National Action Plan (or NAP) is, how the Czech NAP came into existence and finally, what does it actually include. 1. Defining the problem and looking for a solution To fully understand what a NAP is, we must first go back to the 1970s‘. That’s when the topic of transnational business and its impact on human right first came into wider debate. The problem was clear: Transnational business operates internationally, the law is confined by national borders. And although most companies respect human rights as “moral obligations” regardless of applicable law, some don’t. How to prevent them from doing so, get victims an access to remedy and provide level playing field where everyone respects basic human rights standards? There were many initiatives to address his problem. First major initiative was so-called “Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations” proposed in 1973 at the UNCTAD conference in Chile. However, the idea never came into fruition. It took 7 years just to start works on the Code, and 10 more years to finish it – only to be universally refused in 1990. The main reason for the disagreement was an ideological clash between industrially developed and developing countries. While the first proposed a non-binding “guidelines,” the latter hoped for a legally binding international law instrument. After the failure of the Code, there were few more attempts, but mostly unsuccessful (usually for the same reasons – disagreements between developed and developing countries) – the most successful initiative was the UN Global Compact, which is nonbinding and voluntary. The breakthrough – or rather, a difficult compromise – came in 2011. By then, the UN Council for Human Rights approved so-called “Guiding Principles”. The idea was following: Since the states cannot agree on single legally binding contract and since international law instrument isn’t binding to private entities anyway, let’s set guidelines only. The states can choose what is relevant to them and enact fitting measures – of their * Mgr. Martin Archalous. Author worked as the secretary of Business and Human Rights Working Group at the Office of the Government. Views stated in this text are author’s personal views only. 1 The plan itself can be found here: In English: https://business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/ cz_nap_bhr_2017-2022_-_draft_english_translation.docx In Czech: https://www.vlada.cz/assets/ppov/rlp/ aktuality/ma_KORNARFB2TRM.docx

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