Slovenia – Human rights due diligence

The state’s expectations of business enterprises

With this Action Plan, the Government commits to encouraging the development and promotion of human rights due diligence in business and puts forward the recommendation and the expectation that economic operators will set up a mechanism for human rights due diligence. (pg. 7-8)

Principle 2 – States sets expectation for respecting human rights

[T]he Government of the Republic of Slovenia expects economic operators to set up a human rights due diligence mechanism to facilitate the identification, prevention and mitigation of adverse human rights impacts, as well as to report on their mitigation measures. Human rights due diligence includes assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed. Enterprises provide human rights due diligence reports as part of their financial or sustainability reports. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia will strive for the development and implementation of human rights due diligence in business and will maintain dialogue with stakeholders concerning the implementation of human rights due diligence in practice. This Action Plan provides further information on human rights due diligence in the annex ‘Guidelines on the implementation of human rights due diligence in business’. (pg. 11)

Principle 3d – Human Rights Due Diligence

With this Action Plan, the Slovenian Government recommends that business enterprises based in Slovenia practice human rights due diligence throughout the business process to guarantee human rights in business in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles. It also recommends they include due diligence reports in their annual reports or in sustainability reports. The Guidelines on Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence are included as an annex to the Action Plan to help draft due diligence reports. (pg. 22)

The Slovenian Government will strive to develop and foster human rights due diligence in business operations, and promote its recommendations for business enterprises, with a focus on those owned or co-owned by the state. When monitoring the implementation of the Action Plan, the Slovenian Government will continue the dialogue with the business sector, trade unions, NGOs and other partners on the implementation of human rights due diligence in practice, including the designing of mechanisms and tools for this purpose. To support the implementation of human rights due diligence, the Government will examine the possibilities of carrying out projects aimed at informing enterprises of the content and methodology of due diligence plans, including by providing counselling for its drafting. (pg. 23-24)

Principle 31 – Operational-level mechanisms

Slovenia will continue its efforts to establish cooperation with non-governmental organisations, businesses, trade unions and academia, to encourage enterprises to strive for continuous development and to apply the relevant appeal mechanisms to address the alleged or potential violations of human rights in business processes, also through human rights due diligence. (pg. 42)

Implementation of the National Action Plan

The review of the fulfilment of commitments with further proposals is conducted in multi-stakeholder form. Furthermore, the Ministry promotes, and steers activities aimed at developing mechanisms and tools for conducting human rights due diligence. (pg. 43)

Annex I – Human Rights Due Diligence

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights define human rights due diligence as a process carried out by business enterprises to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights, as well as to report on methods to reduce such impacts. Human rights due diligence is a permanent internal process and must be carried out by a responsible company to an extent appropriate to its size, sector, nature and geographical area to ensure respect for human rights. In addition, it is recommended that an enterprise also carry out human rights due diligence with its contractual partners and uses its influence to contribute to the acceptance of, and respect for, human rights. Human rights due diligence falls into the context of other careful assessments within the framework of the enterprise’s risk management. (pg. 44)

Annex I – Human Rights Due Diligence in Practice

The implementation of human rights due diligence can be summarised in five steps, which include adopting the commitment to respect human rights throughout business operations, setting up a structure for due diligence in all internal and external relations, a priority analysis, due diligence implementation through mechanisms for detecting, and responding to, violations and monitoring of, and reporting on, due diligence and respect for human rights. (pg. 45)