“Good Business” matters to Northern Ireland and the UK’s Devolved Regions and Nations.
In fact, of the MPs that have signed the Good Business Matters Pledge a great proportion come from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. In fact, a full two thirds of sitting MPs from Northern Ireland have signalled their support for stronger laws to protect human rights and prevent corporate abuse.
Today, I am pleased to announced that support also extends to those in devolved legislatures. In Northern Ireland, 20% (19) of the Members of the Legislative Assembly(MLAs) in Stormont (90) have also signed the Good Business Matters pledge, with MLA’s or MPs from all 5 of Northern Ireland’s largest political parties indicating their support for more responsible business.
In Northern Ireland, the cross jurisdictional nature of trade highlights that other countries and regions are already taking action in this area, for example through the EU CSDDD, and that legislation and regulation in the UK is now falling behind. However, for most of the decision makers I have spoken to, their support is a matter of principle, based on a desire to ensure that businesses operating in Northern Ireland do not contribute to the abuse of rights or ecological damage in other parts of the world.
The actions and impacts of business have also been heavily interwound in Northern Ireland’s own conflict. Discriminatory business practices, mainly used to exclude Catholic communities from the workforce, helped to fuel the conflict. Conversely, over the last 30 years since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland has also witnessed the positive role that businesses can play in helping to solidify the peace process. This unique history may have helped contribute to an appreciation across most political parties of the importance of ensuring business practices that are both positive and ethical.
Support for a Business and Human Rights Act in Westminster, whilst positive, is not the only action that devolved governments can take. While constitutional arrangements around devolution are by no means straightforward or uniform in the UK, with each devolved region having varying powers at their disposal, there are a range of actions that can be taken to reinforce human rights principles in the transaction of business.
One of the steps already taken in Northern Ireland has been the development of a Procurement Policy Note on Human Rights in Public Procurement. It ensures that any public procurement under NI public bodies takes human rights into consideration. Government departments must assess the potential human rights risk in relation to any commercial contracts with minimum actions required such as contractors supplying a human rights policy or in contracts deemed to be of higher risk, ensuring that grievance and complaints mechanisms are in place or providing details on supply chains.
While this falls short of mandatory supply chain due diligence, it is an important step forward, especially given the outsize role of public finances in the Northern Irish economy.
Another element of progress was the publication of the first NI Business and Human Rights Index which assessed the compliance of the top 20 companies operating in Northern Ireland with in their compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The index was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and compiled by researchers from the Business and Human Rights Research Cluster at Queens University Belfast’s School of Law.
Unfortunately, the research found low levels of corporate alignment with the UNGPs across all the companies surveyed, with only one scoring above 50% compliance. So while there has been some important progress at a devolved level in NI, there is a long way to go in addressing these issues.
And that is one of the reasons that the expressions of support for the Good Business Matters pledge is so important. The issue of business and human rights at a devolved level depends on a small but committed group of organisations, such as NIHRC and the School of Law at QUB, to push this issue forward. Building coalitions between civil society, public bodies and politicians is critical if there are to be further gains on Business and Human Rights in Northern Ireland.
Click here to learn more about the pledge and to see which MLAs have signed up so far!
Written by Peter Heaney, Head of Region (Northern Ireland), Trocaire