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Eastern Europe & Central Asia REGIONAL Eastern Europe BRIEFING & Central Asia Business & human rights in Eastern Europe & Central Asia – A round-up of recent developments April 2013 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.1. About this briefing ................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2. About the Resource Centre .................................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Company responses in Eastern Europe & Central Asia ........................................................................ 3 1.4. Research missions in Eastern Europe & Central Asia ........................................................................... 4 2. Key concerns .......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. Workplace health & safety ................................................................................................................... 4 2.2. Impact of pollution on health ............................................................................................................... 5 2.3. Concerns associated with projects funded by development banks ..................................................... 6 2.4. Discrimination....................................................................................................................................... 7 2.5. Labour rights other than health & safety, discrimination .................................................................... 8 2.6. Other concerns ..................................................................................................................................... 9 3. Positive developments ......................................................................................................... 10 3.1. Steps to protect environment and health .......................................................................................... 10 3.2. Grievance mechanism and human rights policy ................................................................................ 10 3.3. Initiatives promoting health and education ....................................................................................... 10 3.4. Other initiatives .................................................................................................................................. 10 4. Legal, policy and regulatory developments ........................................................................ 11 4.1. Lawsuits .............................................................................................................................................. 11 4.2. Laws & regulatory action .................................................................................................................... 12 5. The international business & human rights framework ..................................................... 13 6. Looking ahead ....................................................................................................................... 14 6.1. Issues .................................................................................................................................................. 14 6.2. The Resource Centre’s plans for the region ....................................................................................... 14 7. Follow our work on Eastern Europe & Central Asia ........................................................... 15 2 1. Introduction 1.1. About this briefing This briefing highlights reports from a range of sources about how businesses have impacted human rights, positively and negatively, in Eastern Europe & Central Asia over the past four years. The briefing refers to Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Ella Skybenko, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s Eastern Europe & Central Asia Researcher based in Ukraine, provides our coverage of these countries. This is not a comprehensive overview. It flags some major issues, cases, developments and trends. For more detail see our website, with sections on over 190 countries, over 5000 companies, and 150 issues. 1.2. About the Resource Centre Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, an independent non-profit organization, provides the leading information hub on business & human rights: www.business-humanrights.org. The website tracks reports about the human rights impacts (positive & negative) of over 5000 companies in over 180 countries, and provides guidance tools and resources for all those working in this field. Our researchers are based in Brazil, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, UK, Ukraine and USA. Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland, is Chair of the Centre’s International Advisory Network. Our Academic Partners comprise 23 leading academic institutions. The Centre does not accept funding from companies or company foundations, in order to maintain its independence and to prevent any possible perception of a conflict of interest. Our mission: To encourage companies to respect and promote human rights, and avoid harm to people. We do this by advancing: Transparency – pursuing, collecting and disseminating to a global audience information about company conduct, positive and negative; Public accountability – helping civil society get companies to address concerns; seeking responses and drawing attention to each company’s response or failure to respond; and Informed decision-making – providing the leading business & human rights resource and guidance hub, to assist civil society, companies and others. We seek responses from companies when concerns are raised by civil society. Advocates thank us for bringing global attention to their concerns and for eliciting responses from companies. Companies thank us for providing them the opportunity to present their responses in full. This process often leads to real improvements on the ground. Special portals on the Resource Centre’s website include: “Getting Started – an introduction to business & human rights” “Tools & Guidance” “UN Working Group on business & human rights” “UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” “UN Special Representative on business & human rights” “Corporate Legal Accountability” “Business, Conflict & Peace” “Business & Children” “Business & Freedom of Association” “Human rights impacts of oil pollution: US Gulf Coast, Ecuador, Nigeria” 3 For further details, see the "About us" section of our website. Sign up for free Weekly Updates on business & human rights here. 1.3. Company responses in Eastern Europe & Central Asia We seek company responses when concerns are raised by civil society and when we find no evidence that they have otherwise responded to the concerns. Many of the responses we have received from companies operating in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are included in this briefing. This response process encourages companies to publicly address human rights concerns, and provides the public with both the allegations and the company’s comments in full. In some cases this process helps to bring about resolution of the issues. In other cases it has led to dialogue between the company and those raising the concerns. In all cases it has increased transparency. The overall worldwide company response rate to us has been around 75% since 2005; the rate for companies headquartered in Eastern Europe & Central Asia since 2005 is 47%. We have calculated the response rates from companies headquartered in the region for responses that we have sought since 2005. Below we indicate the country where the companies are headquartered, and the number of responses obtained out of the total number of responses requested: Bulgaria - 100% (1 out of 1) Armenia - 83.33% (5 out of 6) Kazakhstan – 61.54% (8 out of 13) Azerbaijan - 50% (3 out of 6) Bosnia & Herzegovina – 50% (1 out of 2) Russia - 37.50% (6 out of 16) Ukraine - 12.50% (1 out of 8) Croatia – 0% (0 out of 1) We have sought company responses over issues arising in other countries in the region as well, but those companies were headquartered outside the region. The numbers above relate only to companies headquartered in Eastern Europe & Central Asia. Details about all of the company responses we have sought worldwide since February 2005, including from companies operating in Eastern Europe & Central Asia but headquartered outside the region, can be found here. We indicate in the individual company sections of our website the response rate of each company that we have invited to respond to an allegation. While a company’s response rate is not a reflection of a company’s actual conduct, and while the quality of responses varies, it is an important indicator of a firm’s openness to engaging with human rights concerns being raised by civil society. Here is a selection of the best and worst response rates by companies headquartered in Eastern Europe & Central Asia: Alaverdi Copper Smelting (Armenia) 100% (1 response; 1 invitation) Rusal (Russia) 100% (1 response; 1 invitation)
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