Regional consultation: Business and human rights in conflict and post-conflict settings

What would be the concerns and the demands of the main stakeholders? How to feed in the recommendations that will be presented in 2020 to the UN general assembly? these were the main issues discussed in the closed consultation that hosted around 25 experts from the region, followed by an open consultation where around 60 participants presented and discussed their point of view.

This first regional consultation was convened by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, which is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to promote worldwide implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It took place in Beirut, with the support of the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung(FES). Consultations in other parts of the world will follow later in 2019-20.

The Guiding Principles provide the authoritative global framework for the respective duties and responsibilities of governments and businesses to prevent and address business-related adverse human rights impacts. They apply to all companies in all sectors and in all geographies and contexts. As part of this mandate, the Working Group in 2018 launched a project to clarify the practical steps that states, companies and investors should take to prevent and address business-related human rights abuse in conflict and post-conflict contexts. The project will be informed by a series of multi-stakeholder consultations in several regions, comprehensive research and submissions by stakeholders.

Final recommendations will be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York in October 2020.