UNGP, Human Rights and Norwegian Development Cooperation Involving Business

Can we know and show that human rights are promoted, protected and respected in Norwegian development cooperation involving business?

The evaluation investigates which systems that are in place in state agencies involved in development cooperation. The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGP) as a framework for assessing the degree to which human rights are promoted, protected, respected and remedied.

The evaluation find that there is  a strong message consistently communicated by the aid administration about the responsibilities of government entities in ensuring that UNGP is implemented in aid involving business. Despite this, the evaluation found that there are still gaps in the understanding of their own responsibilities among different representatives and agencies of the state that are involved in development cooperation. This leaves a room of maneuver that enable agencies to question whether there are any human rights requirements.

Several agencies have questioned, and continue to question, their duties under UNGP, and there is an apparent lack of clarity on the extent of the agencies' responsibilities in ensuring adequate human rights due diligence in businesses that that they provide financial support to, or that they support and facilitate.

There is also a lack of clarity regarding who from the Government's side is responsible for ensuring that there is a clear understanding among government representatives and agencies, and for monitoring the implementation of UNGP. Hence, we have limited possibility to know and show that development cooperation involving business protect and promote human rights.

Revisit the debate from the launch seminar (in Norwegian):