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MUKHENA: Businesses crucial in advancing human rights

They should encourage diversity because with diversity comes different skills, experiences and knowledge.

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by ANTHONY MUKHENA

Star-blogs17 January 2024 - 19:41
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In Summary


  • Businesses should develop policies that curb undesirable practices at the workplace, including sexual harassment
  • They should provide avenues for redress when complaints have been made by employees, and their clientele

According to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2011, the state and businesses, including small, medium-sized enterprises and large corporations have a role to play in respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights.

Firstly, the state not only has the responsibility to advance socioeconomic rights, including labour rights, but should also advance other rights, including civil and political rights.

Therefore, it is important that the state creates a conducive environment where as businesses carry out their activities, they respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of their employees.

One way of the state ensuring this is by enacting legislation relating to employment and occupational safety and health at the workplace amongst others.

Secondly, businesses bring together workers from all walks of life, who should not be discriminated against based on such grounds as nationality, age, religion, political affiliation, ethnic origin, pregnancy, sex or any other ground whatsoever.

In fact, businesses should encourage diversity among their rank and file, because with diversity comes different skills, experiences and knowledge. Therefore, it is imperative that businesses respect this key tenet from recruitment to employment.

Thirdly, businesses should provide avenues for redress when complaints have been made by employees, and their clientele, including the surrounding communities where they operate.

Businesses should develop policies that curb undesirable practices at the workplace, including sexual harassment, and enact responsive human resource policies and other relevant policies that enable the employee to work in a conducive environment for optimal performance.

No employee should be victimised for simply pointing out areas that need improvement. They should at all times, ensure that human rights due diligence is done. The surrounding community, when aggrieved, should also be listened to and their grievances addressed.

Through the Office of the Attorney General, in 2019, Kenya developed the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. This plan is a comprehensive strategy for protecting against human rights abuses by businesses, whether private or owned by government.

It focuses on five thematic issues—land and natural resources; labour rights; revenue transparency; environmental protection; and access to remedy. It outlines concrete commitments by the government for addressing adverse business-related human rights impacts under these themes.

To this end, it is thus important that businesses, both private and government-owned, no matter their operational context, familiarise themselves with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.

This would help forestall legal challenges before courts, and the Employment and Labour Relations Court must be commended for affirming respect for labour practices.

Provisions of other important legislation such as the Environmental Management and Coordination Act, and Mining Act, among others, must be enforced to the letter by the relevant government agencies.

 

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