The government expects businesses to take concrete action to respect human rights in their own operations and elsewhere in their production chains. In turn, the government, civil society organisations and other stakeholders have a responsibility to support such actions. This is laid down in the National Action Plan for Human Rights and Business that the cabinet has approved at the proposal of the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen...After the United Kingdom, the Netherlands is the second country in the world to adopt a national action plan of this kind. The government intends to make specific agreements with certain sectors in which the risk of human rights violations is high, for example with the textiles sector, where there are abuses in garment factories in countries such as Bangladesh, and with energy companies that buy coal from mines in Colombia, where there are problems with human rights and working conditions...Businesses that supply goods or services to the government or request assistance to carry out international activities will be screened as to their compliance with these expectations.