Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, President of IBCSD and CEO of Sintesa Group said, “We would like to send messages and invite more business leaders in Indonesia to concern more on respecting human rights towards sustainable development. We believe that mutual trust and understanding between the business sector and CSOs are very important to be developed in order to create more positive environment on business and human rights in Indonesia.”
Posted on December 16, 2014
Jakarta, 10 December 2014 – The first Business and Human Rights event in Indonesia was held on International Human Rights Day in Jakarta. Over 40 Indonesian companies, practitioners, civil society organizations (CSO’s) and academics attended the conference, co-organized by the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD) and ICCO Cooperation. The aim of the event was to discuss the implementation of the United Nation Guiding Principles (UNGPs) for Business and Human Rights in Indonesia and the South East Asia region.
IBCSD and ICCO Cooperation are keen on promoting the United Nation Guiding Principles (UNGPs) for Business and Human rights and its relevancy to the economic, social and environmental impact of corporate activities. The UNGPs are based on three pillars which are: Respect for, Protect human rights and provisions of Remedy for human rights violations through non-judicial and judicial means.
The conference presented the business cases of IBCSD member companies on human rights implementation. During plenary sessions the participants were invited to explore new practices on: Responsible and inclusive business and measuring impacts for the poor, Social Conflict Mediation and Strategic Community Investments on how companies are dealing with social mediation in their value chains.
Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, President of IBCSD and CEO of Sintesa Group said, “We would like to send messages and invite more business leaders in Indonesia to concern more on respecting human rights towards sustainable development. We believe that mutual trust and understanding between the business sector and CSOs are very important to be developed in order to create more positive environment on business and human rights in Indonesia.”
Kees de Ruiter, Regional Manager of ICCO Cooperation South East Asia & Pacific said, “Businesses play an increasing role in supporting civil society organizations and development organizations to reach their development objective. And the other way around CSO’s play in increasing role in supporting the private sector to reach their business goal. It’s fair to say that working together is not an aim in itself, it’s a way for both sides to reach their goals.”
As South East Asian nations have recognized the validity of the UNGPs for Business and Human Rights, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have also started discussing issues related to business and human rights and the collaboration with government and corporations. In the meantime, companies have been showing their efforts in supporting human rights issues in their business operation by creating jobs, providing opportunities for communities and greening their operations down to their value chains. Some others also refer to their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) as their response to the UNGPs, which involve communities as part of the programs.
The UNGPs for Business and Human Rights was crafted to prevent human rights violations in business operations and organizations in the core business up to the economic value chains. Companies can impact the entire range of human rights issues positively or negatively, including discrimination, sexual harassment, health & safety, freedom of association and to form unions, freedom of expression, privacy, poverty, food and water, education, housing and land rights.
Businesses can maximize the UNGPs to leverage their human rights impacts positively with the increase of their employees’ productivity, better relations between management and labor, conflict-free value chain relations and sustainable economic activities.