Czechia

Publication and dissemination of existing documents, education and awareness-raising [page 11]

“Tasks:

• Assess the vehicles in place to provide businesses with information on human rights risks in countries or regions where they are planning to set up operations.
  Coordinator: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  Deadline: 31 December 2020”

 Trade in military equipment [page 19-20]

“Current state of play:

• Trade in military equipment is regulated beyond the framework of national legislation and at EU level, in particular by Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment. That Common Position defines eight binding criteria for assessment of applications to export military equipment, including the need to consider the risk of potential violations of human rights.

Tasks:

• Offer all necessary cooperation and assistance to the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Acquisitions of the Ministry of Defence, Trade in Military Equipment and Innovations of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic so that regular assessments can be carried out of the human rights risks posed by export licences and by military equipment exports that have been made.
  Coordinators: Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  Deadline: Running”

 Public procurement [page 23]

“… certain international standards, such as ISO 26000, contain criteria recommended for human rights risk assessments. …”

 State aid, guarantees and subsidies [page 25]

“Current state of play:

• Aid applicants must submit a detailed environmental impact assessment for a selected export where CEB- and EGAP-backed projects have a larger-scale environmental and social impact.”

The Czech NAP contains a section on Due diligence [page 35-36] which is relevant to human rights impact assessments (see the analysis on Human rights due diligence)

 Transparency [page 37-38]

“The Government of the Czech Republic recommends that businesses where the activities, products, services or business relationships are associated with risks of serious human rights violations formally provide information on how they are dealing with those risks, even in situations where the law does not require them to do so. The government recommends all companies reporting on human rights to take account of the Reporting Framework for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Reporting should provide information of relevance without overwhelming the reader. The Government also recommends that large-scale projects with a potential major impact be publicly presented and consulted.”

Voluntary non-financial reporting [page 38]

“A business may publish periodic non-financial reports in numerous forms, either as part of the annual report or entirely separately. In any case, they should be posted online on the business’s website. The non-financial report should not be drawn up just for show, but should shed light on significant information relevant to an impact assessment of the business’s operations. On the other hand, it should remain brief and concentrate on matters of relevance. Parent companies should include information on the activities of their subsidiaries.”