Staff member of the Ombudsman Office participated in the 8th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

Staff member of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, specialized adviser on Business and Human Rights, Rashad Novruzov participated in the 8th session of the United Nations (UN) Forum on Business and Human Rights on November 25-27, 2019, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Vice-President of the Human Rights Council Ms. Vesna Batisti? Koc and the Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights Ms. El?bieta Karska provided information on the issues of the agenda in the Forum, in which nearly more than 2000 representatives and experts from state bodies, NGOs and business enterprises took part.

The issues of implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights that implies applying relevant political, regulative and legal protection means in the protection of human rights, which were violated by business enterprises, corporate social liability, as well as ensuring access to the effective legal protection means in the national legislation; developing relevant National Action Program and ensuring its implementation were disgusted in that international event.

Exchange of experiences was realized in different sessions of the forum regarding the role of states, business enterprises, NGOs and communities in combating child labour within the context of business and human rights, issues of gender, trafficking in human beings, preservation of environment, experience of member states in corporate social liability and activity of National Human Rights Institutions in this field.

The staff member of the Ombudsman Office delivered a speech in the relevant session of the forum touching upon the successful development and reforms in the country.

The effective cooperation of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman with the UN specialized bodies, OSCE, Council of Europe, international and regional ombudsman institutions, international NGOs and networks, participation in the Twinning and TAIEX projects of the European Union, also Eastern Partnership programs were brought into attention.

R. Novruzov reported that the Commissioner successfully maintains the activity in this field in the direction of investigating complaints, scientific-analytical activity and legal awareness raising. He noted that Working Group on Business and Human Rights under the Commissioner was established, in which more than 20 representatives from state authorities and NGOs are represented, with the purpose of coordination of the activities of relevant bodies, learning and implementing international instruments, improvement of legislation, effective arrangement of awareness raising work.

It was mentioned that 19 roundtables have been organized by the abovementioned Working Group on the actual topics covering interests of different population groups, the proposals put forward in the events were summarized and addressed to certain authorities, also delivered to the attention of the public by being included into the Commissioner’s annual reports. A number of proposals have been taken into consideration in the amendments made to the normative-legal acts and newly adopted state programs.

The participants of the session were also informed that the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as such the protection of the rights of the child, issues of gender, ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities, preserving environment are among the main activity directions of the Working Group. The staff members of the Ombudsman Office are represented in three working groups of Coordination Council on Sustainable Development, present relevant proposals within the discussions, take an active part in drafting voluntary reviews jointly with other state bodies and NGOs.

It was mentioned that international tools in the area of Business and Human Rights are learnt, the UN Global Compact, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including the commentary of this document, Edinburgh Declaration have been translated into Azerbaijani and sited in the Ombudsman’s official website at the initiative of the Commissioner to make them available for the public.

The representative of the Office also noted that National Program for Action in the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms for 2020-2024 has been drafted and submitted in the relevant manner at the initiative of the Ombudsman. It was told that this draft reflected important clauses like developing individual state program with regard to business and human rights, informing entrepreneurs about the obligations on human rights, providing them with necessary information, supporting them with trainings and other means, effectively instructing enterprises on the methods of respecting human rights in the framework of their activities and other such kind of duties.