On July 6, 2022, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, and representatives of 50 Luxembourg companies, among which the ABBL, signed the National Pact "Business and Human Rights".
This initiative was launched jointly by the INDR, the UEL and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE) as well as its Business and Human Rights working group including our association.
Through the voluntary implementation of this pact, constituting a concrete action in the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ABBL endeavour, among other things, to ensure respect for human rights throughout its supply chain and publish an annual report on the various implemented actions.
“The adherence to this pact, is part of the CSR policy of our association concerned with finding a balance between its activities and its commitment to sustainable development in the broad sense of the term. Thus, we encourage our members wishing to implement the UN Guiding Principles to adhere to the Pact”. - Jerry GRBIC, CEO of the ABBL
More generally, this engagement will allow signatory companies to be better prepared for the future directive on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence to tackle human rights and environmental impacts across global value chains, aimed in particular at:
- promote sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour throughout global value chains
- provide legal and fair conditions of competition
For consumers and investors, this legal framework will ensure greater transparency.
More information:
What are the challenges and benefits of implementing a due diligence?
- better risk and reputation management,
- greater understanding and transparency of the value chain,
- improved governance, resilience and competitive advantage
By subscribing to the Pact, what do companies commit to?
- raise awareness among their staff and stakeholders to the protection of human rights in companies
- appoint a person responsible for human rights in the organisation
- train the relevant employees on business and human rights matters
- develop governance-related tools to identify risks and prevent human rights violations
- implement one or more remedies to deal with reported cases of human rights violations
- publish a standardised annual report on the implemented measures.
Resources
By Jessica Thyrion - Financial Education Adviser