"Advice: Response to the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights “Knowing and Showing”", Feb 2014

The Institute expresses its appreciation that the minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, also on behalf of the Minister of Economic Affairs, have drawn up an action plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles. By doing this, they show that they attach much value to protecting and respecting human rights and offering remedies for human rights violations by companies...In this response the Institute examines to what extent already existing policy and the intended actions are sufficiently compatible with the UN Guiding Principles...The Institute is of the opinion that the government is on the right track, but that the content of the action plan is not sufficient to implement the UN Guiding Principles...The most important points for the Institute are that: - there should be a greater focus on human rights violations in the Netherlands ;- the government should do more to observe the commitments from the UN Guiding Principles in its role as market party and supporter of companies;- there should be a greater focus on victims of human rights violations; - there should be clarity about the follow-up of the action plan. In its response the Institute makes a number of recommendations.