BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

own free will, but in the accordance with the principles. The companies, meanwhile, are free to do the same – again, not because they are obliged by law, but because of moral and ethical reasons, and because of the shared responsibility for level playing field. The Guiding Principles rest on three pillars – the first one is aimed at the state, the second one at the business enterprises, the third one provides for remedy. When implementing the Principles, states should pick the issues they consider most pressing, and are free in choosing a solution. Then, states are advised to prepare a National Action Plan where they summarize their findings and intentions. How does this look in practice? For example, the British NAP builds on the centuries- long tradition of corporate governance culture and mostly tries to support companies in voluntary internal commitments. Netherlands, as a traditional seat of large transnationals puts emphasis on relations inside groups of companies, duties and responsibilities of highest management and international cooperation. Sweden, a traditional leader in this field, mostly describes current state of affairs and commits to develop mechanisms already in place. The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic (Department for Human Rights), was tasked with creating the Czech NAP in late 2015. The important fact came to attention of government officials – this cannot be done in directive, administrative, from-the-above way. Since the NAP is not binding, the business sector must accept it on its own free will. Therefore, it must be included in its drafting from the very beginning. That’s why the working group was created. 2. The working group The working group for business and human rights, tasked with drafting Czech National Action Plan, was created in late 2015 by joint decision of the Minister for Human Rights and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic was chosen to provide administrative and technical support for the working group. The group itself was “quadri-partite,” comprising of representatives of the civil service, NGOs, trade unions and the business sector. Various NGOs took very keen interest in the affairs of working group, as this project was in line with their own long-term agenda. (Some of the participating NGOs are part of international working groups dealing with this topic on UN level.) The business was represented by the Confederation of Industry (Svaz průmyslu a dopravy), but several individual companies took interest in the activities, with two or three major companies taking active role in the project, few other taking observatory role. At certain point in time, this working group comprised of 35 members, making the management of its operations an uneasy task. The group remained operational for 2 years, meeting at least 8 times in full session, accompanied with many informal meetings with subject matter experts to discuss isolated issues. The last meeting took place in late June 2017.

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