Spain

III. Areas of Actions and Measures

Pillar I. The State Duty to Protect Human Rights

Foundational Principles [pages 10-15]

Guiding Principle 2

The State expects from Spanish companies, in Spain and abroad, a behavior consistent with its responsibility to respect human rights, which implies that they must act with due diligence, depending on their size and circumstances, to avoid the violation of the rights of third parties and to deal with the adverse impacts of their activity. In this regard, in addition to recalling the obligation incumbent upon the State to protect human rights, which 11 includes abuses that may result from business activity, also the need to preserve the reputation of the State and to promote the Brand Spain should be noted. Ultimately, the State expects Spanish companies to exert their responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the foundational and operational principles of the Pillar II of the Guiding Principles.

Measures:

1. The Government will transfer the expectations described regarding human rights by companies to the business sector in a clear and consistent manner.
2. The Government will develop awareness and training actions based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the National Plan for Business and Human Rights, and the expectations of the State in matters of business and human rights. These actions can be organized, among others, with the National Contact Point of the OECD Guidelines for multinational companies, business associations, networks of the United Nations Global Compact, and civil society organizations. This action will be directed as a priority to those companies in which the State has participation, or to which it provides financial, diplomatic, or other support; to companies that may affect vulnerable groups; as well as to those companies that have received the endorsement of 14 Brand Spain. The awareness actions will be directed to the personnel of the companies at different decision-making levels, including the boards of directors and governing bodies.
3. In particular, the Government will develop awareness-raising campaign on actions aimed to protect groups with greater risk of vulnerability. In this sense, and in collaboration with the Spanish and international organizations, the Government will disseminate the UNICEF document, Save the Children and the Global Compact “Children’s Rights and Business Principles” among the business sector and will specifically take into account General Comment No. 16 of 2013 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
4. The self-regulation codes will also be promoted, taking as an example relevant sector experiences, such as the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) or the Code of Conduct for the protection of children and adolescents against sexual exploitation in the Tourism and Travel Industry, as well as the relevant labor conventions of the ILO.
5. Likewise, an awareness-raising strategy will be carried out on how to avoid discriminatory practices in public and private companies (by distinction, exclusion or preference) because of gender, age, ethnic origin, race, religion, disability, political affiliation or union, sexual orientation, nationality, marital status, socioeconomic origin or any other personal distinction.
6. Companies and vulnerable sectors will be informed about ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989), and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). This awareness-raising action will demonstrate the benefits that the respect for human rights can have for companies, as well as highlight examples of good practices.
7. The Government will establish networks among Spanish companies or that the ones that operate in Spain for the promotion of: measures, procedures or internal systems that can effectively contribute to the prevention and/or mitigation of the negative consequences of business activities on human rights; as well as for the dissemination of good practices aimed to avoid these consequences, or to influence their avoidance, reduction or remedy. The establishment of procedures for internal assessment and determination of action will be promoted in a manner that avoids other negative consequences on human rights.
8. The Monitoring Commission will design and submit to the Government the adoption of an incentive system that includes both large companies and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that carry out policies in the field of human rights. These incentives may be economic, commercial, visibility and image, or other nature, to encourage companies to have policies and reliably certify that they have implemented adequate procedures at a global level according to their size and circumstances, namely:

– A public commitment to assume its responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the provisions of the Principle no. 16;

– A process of due diligence aligned with the sectorial guides regarding the OECD (due diligence guidance), and based on the dialogue with stakeholders that allows identification, prevention, mitigation, and accountability of how they address the impact of their own activities and those that are directly related to their business relationships in accordance with the provisions of Principles no. 17 to no. 21;

– Some processes that allow to remedy all the negative consequences on human rights that have caused or contributed to provoke according to what is established in Principles no. 22, no.29, no. 30, no. 31.3.