Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multi-National Enterprises (MNE): Canada’s National Contact Point Annual Report – On May 9, 2011 the Canadian National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines for MNE’s published its annual report which provides a description of the structure of the NCP, and a summary of its activities in the fulfillment of its mandate, both promotion and the treatment of specific instances. The report may be viewed on Canada’s NCP website. This year’s annual meeting of NCPs was held June 27-29, 2011 in Paris. Canada’s participation included a role as a lead panellist for a discussion on peer learning related to recent NCP cases.
Voluntary Principles on Human Rights and Security: Canada Hosts Extraordinary Plenary Meeting – On September 15-16, 2011 Canada hosted a successful Extraordinary Plenary Meeting of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative (VPs) in Ottawa. This meeting was held to finalise key projects meant to strengthen the VPs Initiative – the Plenary agreed to new Governance Rules and agreed to form a legal entity which will be housed in the Netherlands. The Voluntary Principles welcomed Switzerland as a full-status participant and welcomed two new Canadian participants: Inmet Mining and Partnership Africa Canada. In addition, several individual members also launched a collaborative effort to explore key performance indicators and supporting mechanisms that could help the VPs. These participants will report back to the Annual Voluntary Principles Plenary Meeting which will be hosted in March 2012 in Ottawa.
Voluntary Principles on Human Rights and Security: The Implementation Guidance Tools Project – On September 16, 2011, during the Ottawa Voluntary Principles Meeting, there was the launch of the Implementation Guidance Tools, a practical guide on how companies can implement the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. This tool was developed by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues (IPIECA), with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The tool will be hosted on the Voluntary Principles website.
Global Reporting Initiative – Guidelines Being Updated: As noted in the May 2011 CSR bulletin, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is currently renewing and updating its current guidelines. The new Guidelines will be developed using GRI’s multi-stakeholder international consultation process, including public consultation periods which will help to ensure that G4’s guidance is consensus-based and reflects the broadest possible stakeholder input. The first public comment period on G4 development concluded on November 24, 2011.
CSR Centre for Excellence – Workshop on John Ruggie’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – On September 15, 2011 the Centre for Excellence in CSR hosted a multi-stakeholder dialogue session with Professor John Ruggie, former UN Special Representative on Human Rights and author of the UN’s recently released Guiding Principles (GP) for the implementation of its ‘Protect, Respect, Remedy’ Framework. Ruggie described the GP development process: he and his team worked with 10 multinational companies from different sectors to operationalize the “Respect” pillar and, working closely with legal firms, ran 6 pilot grievance mechanisms to develop the “Remedy” aspect of the Framework. Going forward the UN will appoint a 5-person inter-regional group to oversee the implementation of the Guiding Principles. John Ruggie is now the Chair of a non-profit organization called Shift, that will provide a learning forum for governments and businesses on how to implement the Guiding Principles.
http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/ds/csr_e-b_Issue13.aspx?lang=eng&view=d