BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

the Guidelines. 16 “Adverse impacts” can be understood as harms to the environment, to people’s safety, to their enjoyment of their human rights, to integrity etc. Essentially, the Guidelines address involvement with adverse impacts across a range of societal concerns that are set out in Chapters III – VIII of the Guidelines. The Guidelines have been updated five times since 1976: in 1979, 1984, 1991, 2000, and the most recent revision took place in 2011. Nevertheless, only major amendments can be identified in 2000 and 2011. In a revision underwent in 2000 they received new chapters on corruption and consumer interests with a significant update of the chapter on employment to fully cover the four main areas of ILO core labour standards. 17 In 2011, the OECD took an important step towards the application of the Guidelines in the sphere of human rights as it was decided to update the Guidelines and to include new recommendations on human rights abuse. 18 Also, guidance on supply chain responsibility was added as well as corporate due diligence forming the general operational principle under the Guidelines. The general trend in updating Guidelines therefore leads to the comprehensive scope of their application. The current version among other things contains RBC voluntary principles and standards that cover CSR principles, including disclosure, human rights, workers and industrial relations, the environment, good governance, and ethical conduct in the form of combatting bribery, bribe solicitation and extortion, and consumer interests. There is a specific chapter on each of these areas which provides more detail of the forms of potential risks 19 and actual impacts which enterprises should avoid and address. It is worth mentioning that the crucial definition of multinational enterprises is formulated in an elusive way to cover all kinds of corporations. In fact, the OECD Guidelines apply to all multinational enterprises in all sectors operating in adhering countries. 20 Moreover, the Guidelines apply to all the entities within the MNE, parent and local entities, and they apply to state owned enterprises. 21 No less important is the territorial scope. This is a rather extensive issue because “the [g]overnments adhering to the Guidelines encourage the enterprises operating on their 18 In the same year, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the Guiding Principles which have become subsequently the authoritative global standard on the subject of business and human rights. The Guidelines incorporated two elements from the Guiding Principles: importance of due diligence processes in companies’ responsibility to respect human rights and due diligence requirement for all subjects covered by the Guidelines. RUGGIE, J. G., NELSON, T.: Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: Normative Innovations and Implementation Challenges, 22 Brown Journal of World Affairs , 2015, p. 170–171. 19 In the sense of an outward facing approach – risks created by enterprises and the negative consequences for the society and the environment if those risks materialise into impacts. 20 The Guidelines note that a “precise definition of multinational enterprises is not required for the purposes of the Guidelines. These enterprises operate in all sectors of the economy. They usually comprise companies or other entities established in more than one country and so linked that they may co-ordinate their operations in various ways.” Chapter I, para 4. 21 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011), Chapter I – Concepts and Principles, para 1, 3, 4, 6; Commentary, para 10. 16 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011), Chapter II – General Policies, para 11. 17 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2000).

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