Ulaanbaatar, 28 April 2023: Respecting human rights is critical for businesses to operate responsibly, sustainably, and ethically while contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Yesterday, UNDP’s Business and Human Rights Global project, funded by the Government of Japan, organized a workshop on “Experience sharing on human rights due diligence” with representatives of Mongolian businesses and supply chains of Japanese companies showcasing experiences, lessons learned and progresses from five companies that received individual guidance on performing rapid risk assessments on human rights in their operations.

The workshop also wraps up the first phase of the Business and Human Rights Academy under the Project to provide trainings and consultations on human rights due diligence for local and international companies including Japanese companies operating in Mongolia. To date, over 260 representatives from 140 companies as well as business associations and chambers in Mongolia equipped themselves with essential tools and knowledge on how to respect human rights in their businesses in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 

Ms. Lin Cao, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, stressed importance of prioritizing human rights in business activities as it will enable businesses to empower women, support health and wellbeing of child, promote fair working conditions, strengthen corporate governance, and ensure long-term sustainability of one’s business and stated “Responsible businesses that regularly conducts human rights due diligence in their operations are becoming more common around the world as the companies are realizing the importance and magnitude of their impact on healthy and prosperous society.” 

Through the human rights rapid risk assessment guidance of the project, the selected companies self-assessed their outlook on human rights and identified potential risks and challenges and adopted short and medium-term plans based on the findings to ensure they uphold human rights in their business operations and supply chains. These plans included maintaining appropriate working conditions, strengthening occupational health and safety standards, having a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and discrimination in the workplace, promoting gender equality, and fostering inclusion and diversity.

Furthermore, these companies are also committing to create a human rights policy specific to their own practices, to regularly conduct human rights due diligence, and to establish or improve their complaint handling/remedy mechanism as stated in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 

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For further inquiries:

Erdenesukh Otgonbayar | Communications Analyst | UNDP Mongolia | erdenesukh.otgonbayar@undp.org