Build Awareness amongst Irish Companies
As part of our international development cooperation assistance, and through our National Plan on Business and Human Rights (2017-2020), Ireland will commit to build awareness amongst Irish companies of international agreements and initiatives which promote ethical business practices, such as the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Completion Status:
Commitment filtering:
The commitment is specific because it refers to a concrete and sufficiently narrow policy area which is the promotion of ethical business practices. It further refers to concrete international agreements/guidelines in this area (the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention,[1] the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights[2], and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative)[3], as well as to a concrete domestic mechanism (the National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020)[4].
[1] OECD, OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, https://www.oecd.org/corruption/oecdantibriberyconvention.htm.
[2] UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf.
[3] Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, The EITI Standard 2019: The global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources, https://eiti.org/files/documents/eiti_standard_2019_en_a4_web.pdf
[4] Government of Ireland, National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/National-Plan-on-Business-and-Human-Rights-2017-2020.pdf
The commitment states that awareness of ethical business practices will be built through the National Plan cited. The Plan includes a set of aims under the heading “The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights”,[1] i.e., Pillar 2 of the UN Guiding Principles[2]. These include encouraging business representative bodies to provide material to support companies’ policies on human rights; encouraging corporate human rights due diligence; encouraging use of human rights reporting standards; and encouraging exchange of best practice information. These aims are difficult to measure given the lack of associated objectives (i.e., actions to achieve the aims). One further, more concrete, priority is listed: to create a factsheet on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Fulfilment of the commitment can be measured by the degree to which the Plan’s aims are put into action, e.g., to the publication of relevant materials (including the factsheet) and, ideally, any metrics regarding circulation and/or survey on whether the initiative has succeeded in raising awareness.
[1] Ibid, pp. 18-19
[2] United Nations, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, p. 13, https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf
Ireland
Evaluation:
The National Plan on Business and Human Rights (2017-2020)[1] aims to “give effect” to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and commits to “encouraging” businesses to implement human rights safeguarding measures. A number of resources have been developed in line with this aim. The Implementation Group for the National Plan published a document called Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises in April 2021, which sets out in detail how the UNGP should be implemented.[2] The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA, which provides the secretariat to the Implementation Group) has confirmed in correspondence with TI Ireland and in minutes of the Implementation Group’s meetings that it continued to promote its guidance through “targeted webinars”.[3] It has also published a webpage gathering human rights guidance for businesses, including case studies, “toolkits” and other resources.[4] DFA published a review of the implementation of the National Plan on Business and Human Rights in December 2021.[5]
In respect of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery, the April 2021 guidance document notes that “[t]he State’s anti-corruption laws were strengthened and modernised in 2018 with the passage of the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018, which encompasses the requirements of a number of international legal instruments including the OECD Convention on Bribery of Foreign Public Officials”.[6] Separately, the National Plan included as a priority: “Create a factsheet on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the criminal offences in Irish law on bribery, the reporting systems in place for reporting suspicions of foreign corruption and the protections provided by the Protected Disclosures Act to be distributed by Enterprise Ireland to all Irish companies engaged in trade missions”.[7] However, the factsheet on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention available on the Enterprise Ireland website is dated 1997 and contains out-of-date information.[8] Enterprise Ireland has stated that it is currently coordinating the development of a business and human rights information sheet for future trade mission briefings.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is not specifically highlighted, but the DFA’s webpage draws attention to a number of other bodies such as the Ethical Trading Initiative, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, and the Business and Human Rights Resources Centre.
| Challenges to effective commitment implementation |
| The Implementation Group includes members from private sector representative bodies, civil society groups, academia, and the State (ministries and agencies) and, in principle, has wide-reaching networks among the target audience through which to raise awareness of the guidance document. However, it has been noted in the media that “the Plan has remained relatively unknown beyond a small group of Government officials, politicians, industry groups and human rights organisations”.[9] This appears to hold true of the UNGP guidance document as well, with little media or other coverage of the guidance document or indeed the National Plan throughout its lifetime. The failure to produce a fact sheet on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention since 2018 may be due to a lack of coordination or clear responsibility, given that the National Plan lead rests with the Department of Foreign Affairs; oversight of anti-corruption matters rests with the Department of Justice; and Enterprise Ireland is an agency of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
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| Opportunities to accelerate commitment implementation |
| The Programme for Government (June 2020) includes a commitment to develop the National Plan on Business and Human Rights and to “review whether there is a need for greater emphasis on mandatory due diligence”.[10] Alongside this, the plan should detail how awareness of international anti-corruption requirements and related initiatives will be raised and also how the impact of this will be measured. A study by Trinity Business School’s Centre for Social Innovation applied the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark’s Core UNGP Indicator Assessment to the top 50 publicly listed companies with operations in Ireland, as well as several state-owned enterprises, and provides a useful baseline.[11] According to the report, titled Irish Business and Human Rights and published in November 2020, 88 per cent of companies assessed scored below 50 per cent of the available points and half scored 20 per cent or lower.[12] This indicates either a lack of awareness of or lack of engagement with the UNGP. These results could be used as an engagement and advocacy tool in encouraging businesses to adopt the UNGP as outlined in Ireland’s Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises. A follow-up study examining the same indicators after an implementation period has elapsed and analysing them against the baseline provided by the November 2020 report would reveal the impact of any awareness-raising measures.
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| Recommendations |
| The Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises, which is 41 pages long and its accompanying website are comprehensive, but a user-friendly site where the principles are distilled into a more digestible format may gain more traction as a promotional/awareness-raising tool.[13] The existing Anti-Corruption and Bribery website overseen by the Department of Justice which already contains detail on the OECD Convention and relevant Irish legislation, should include a section for business, linking to material on the National Plan for Business and Human Rights.[14] Targeted media and social media campaigns can highlight the Plan to key stakeholders such as Irish businesses, multinational corporations operating in Ireland, and business representative groups, as well as consumers.
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[1] Government of Ireland, National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/National-Plan-on-Business-and-Human-Rights-2017-2020.pdf
[2] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/ourrolepolicies/humanrights/Guidance_on_Business_and_Human_Rights.pdf
[3] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Implementation Group for the Business and Human Rights National Plan Minutes of Meeting of 30 March 2021, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/ourrolepolicies/humanrights/Minutes-of-Meeting-30-March-2021.pdf
[4] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises, https://www.dfa.ie/our-role-policies/international-priorities/human-rights/business-and-human-rights/guidance-for-enterprises/
[5] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Review of implementation of National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/ourrolepolicies/humanrights/Review-of-Implementation-of-National-Plan-on-Business-and-Human-Rights-2017-2020—for-website.docx.pdf
[6] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises, p. 16, https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/ourrolepolicies/humanrights/Guidance_on_Business_and_Human_Rights.pdf
[7] Enterprise Ireland is the State agency responsible for developing the exporting capabilities and opportunities of certain partner Irish companies. See: Enterprise Ireland, Home, https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/
[8] Enterprise Ireland, OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/legal/oecd-anti-bribery-convention/
[9] RTÉ, Whose Business Is Human Rights?, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0111/1188922-whose-business-is-human-rights/
[10] Government of Ireland, Programme for Government: Our Shared Future¸ p. 114, https://assets.gov.ie/130911/fe93e24e-dfe0-40ff-9934-def2b44b7b52.pdf
[11] Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, CHRB Core UNGP Indicator Assessment, https://assets.worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/app/uploads/2021/04/CHRB2019CoreUNGPIndicators.pdf
[12] Trinity Business School, Irish Business and Human Rights: A snapshot of large firms operating in Ireland, https://www.tcd.ie/business/assets/pdf/CSI-BHR-2020-Report-V3.pdf
[13] Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Business and Human Rights Guidance for Business Enterprises, https://www.dfa.ie/our-role-policies/international-priorities/human-rights/business-and-human-rights/guidance-for-enterprises/.
[14] Department of Justice Ireland, Welcome to Ireland’s Anti-Corruption and Bribery website, https://www.anticorruption.ie/.