The UK has now published an updated National Action Plan — see it here.
On September 4, 2013 the UK National Action Plan on business and human rights was launched. Entitled “Good Business: Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” the UK is one of the first states to publicly release such a plan. The plan sets out the UK government’s expectations of companies in relation to meeting the responsibility to respect human rights in line with the Guiding Principles. It also provides examples of how the government will seek to meet its own duty to protect human rights. As Shift’s Chair, John Ruggie, observed at the launch:
“The UK action plan embodies a fundamental premise of the Guiding Principles: that the era of declaratory corporate social responsibility is over. It is no longer enough for governments to act as though promoting CSR initiatives somehow absolved them of their obligations to govern in this domain, and to do so in the public interest. It is no longer enough for companies to claim they respect human rights; they must know and show that they do. And it is no longer enough for rights-holders merely to harbor the hope that governments and companies will fulfill their respective obligations; they are entitled to demand remedy for harm done.”
