A National Stakeholder Consultative Workshop on the development of a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP on BHR) in Ghana, has ended with the private sector stakeholders engagement at the Golden Bean Hotel in Kumasi.
The ‘NAP on BHR’ is a requirement on Ghana to be able to implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in Ghana.
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), in collaboration with the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice is ensuring its implementation with sponsorship from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and OXFAM.
Mrs. Mary Adjeley Nartey, Director of Human Rights at CHRAJ, who is also the Co-chairperson of the NAP Steering Committee, remarked that Ghana has ratified most of United Nations Human rights Instruments or treaties and, therefore, under obligation to protect, respect and fulfil the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons in Ghana.
She said the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2011, adopted the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights.
Mrs. Nartey explained the UNGPs simply as a “global framework to ensure that States perform their obligation to protect the fundamental human rights of all persons in their country, businesses comply with all existing human rights laws or regimes both internationally and national and to address human rights abuses arising out of the negative impacts of their business”.
The Human Rights Director mentioned some of the negative impacts of business operations as air pollution, oil spillages, pollution of water bodies, environmental degradation, destruction of farmlands which affects livelihoods, child labour, gender discrimination and inequalities among others, as well as providing effective ways to remedy same.
A resilient NAP, she said, requires inclusive and participatory approach for a sustainable implementation through the engagement of public and private sector actors across the country, and therefore called for full participation for a successful engagement.
Lawyer James Mensah, the Regional Director of CHRAJ, in a brief welcome address entreated the stakeholders to make meaningful inputs into the National Action Plan.
During the break-out session, stakeholders through the guidance of some members of the steering committee brainstormed on varied human rights abuses at their various work places and recommended possible ways to curtailing same.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Kumasi
