[Singapore, 2 December (Monday)] – The Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Law is pleased to announce that it has, together with its partners in Africa and Asia, been selected by the United Nations Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (‘UN Working Group’) to undertake a research project aimed at developing a structured template for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights through national plans of action.

The UN Working Group’s decision follows an open call earlier this year for project proposals on this topic, and an objective evaluation of the many proposals received on the basis of, among other things, the value and experience of the proposers.  This is significant as it marks the first award and commissioning by the UN Working Group of a project involving third-parties from these regions in this regard.

Project Team: The lead institution for this project is the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), whose director Associate Professor Bonita Meyersfeld is the Principal Investigator for the African component of the project.  Coalition partners in Africa are the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria; the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law at the University of Johannesburg (SAIFAC).

The Asia component of the research project will be led by the Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative at the SMU School of Law (SMU-ABRL), with its director Assistant Professor Mahdev Mohan as the Principal Investigator.  Coalition partners in Asia are Singapore Compact and ASEAN CSR Network. The project’s consultants/advisers are eminent scholars in the field, namely Joanne Bauer, Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, USA; and Sumi Dhanarajan, Adviser at SMU-ABRL and a board member of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, UK.

Background: In 2011, the Human Rights Council in Geneva unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (Guiding Principles).  The authoritative global reference point for business and human rights, these Guiding Principles outline global standards for preventing and addressing business-related human rights harm. Shortly thereafter, the Human Rights Council established the UN Working Group to promote the effective implementation of the Guiding Principles and provide advice and recommendations regarding the development of domestic legislation and policies relating to business and human rights.  A core component of the UN Working Group’s mandate is translating the Guiding Principles from paper into practice.  This project aims to develop a model for doing so.

National Action Plans: With a view to fulfilling its mandate, the UN Working Group has awarded this important National Action Plans (NAP) project to the coalition, with precise instructions to assist it in developing a NAP Template for use by governments, business enterprises, civil society and other stakeholders on a variety of topics.  This template will also inform the UN Working Group’s guidance to UN Member States and other actors at the UN Human Right Council and other fora to better ensure accountability for human rights violations in the context of business activities.

Quote: “This UN-backed Africa-Asia academic collaboration is timely and unprecedented.  The SMU project team is honoured to have been chosen to be part of an international team of scholars and practitioners who have been tasked with conducting research on the legal and regulatory contexts in both these continents with regards to human rights and business.  We hope that our report and recommendations will assist the UN and state parties to develop context-sensitive and sustainable National Action Plans.”  - Assistant Professor Mahdev Mohan, Director, Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative, School of Law, Singapore Management University

Geneva: The coalition will be participating and presenting its preliminary views at the 2013 annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights which will be held in Geneva on 2–4 December in part fulfillment of the NAP project.

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For further information:

Vani Sathisan                                                                Huang Peiling
Senior Research Associate                                           Senior Assistant Director
Asian Business & Rule of Law Initiative                         Corporate Communications
SMU School of Law                                                       Tel: 65-68280964
Email: vanisathisan [at] smu.edu.sg                                  Email: plhuang [at] smu.edu.sg