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The Business and Human Rights in Asia (B+HR Asia) project, an EU-UNDP joint action, launched the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) Training Facilitation Guide and Human Rights Self-Assessment Training Tool to help businesses prevent, mitigate, and account for potential human rights abuses in their operations and supply chains.
The Human Rights Due Diligence Training Facilitation Guide, available on UNDP’s website, provides flexible training modules which clarify what is required for companies to conduct human rights due diligence. The training guide is aligned with internationally agreed principles and widely understood terminology. It follows recommendations provided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
The Guide is complemented by a Human Rights Self-Assessment Training Tool featuring 99 potential business-related human rights risks with references to international human rights instruments and relevant Sustainable Development Goals. This tool allows users to simulate a human rights self-assessment with a sample of five or more human rights risks, producing a heatmap to highlight priority areas for action.
At the launch of the HRDD training package, Niloy Banerjee, Resident Representative of UNDP Malaysia pointed out that “the role of Human Rights Due Diligence has never been more important to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. A lot more needs to be done to ensure that we create an environment where human rights abuses cannot occur. And providing free training and easily accessible training materials for businesses that want to operate responsibly is an important step.”
Freely accessible training materials provide timely support for Asian business to prepare for the proposed EU mandatory human rights due diligence directive and remain competitive in EU markets.
Guus Houttuin, Senior Advisor on Trade Issues at the European External Action Service and Rikard Nordeman, Policy Office at the Directorate-General for Trade in the European Commission were also speaking on the launch event to place the Guide into the broader context revealing details of current policy developments in the European Union and their effects on trade relations.
Watch the launch event here:
The event was attended by 445 participants from 56 countries. Most of the participants were representing the business sector: 34 percent of all attendees; followed by members of civil society with 26 percent and attendants of multilateral organizations making up 14 percent of the audience.
The Guide and training tool were developed by UNDP’s Business and Human Rights in Asia project, in partnership with the EU. The international law firm, Clifford Chance provided generous pro bono assistance in the development of the content of the Human Rights Self-Assessment Training Tool.
