United Kingdom

By Daniel Morris | 27. November 2017

The UK 2013 NAP

The State’s Duty to Protect Human Rights 

The existing UK legal and policy framework

New Actions Planned

(ix) Work with EU partners to implement the UNGPs across member states and internationally, starting with the undertaking made by member states in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy to develop their own national plans by the end of 2013.

(x) Support the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises in their role to promote uptake of the UNGPs and develop guidance and best practice (we contributed £100,000 in 2012).

The UK 2016 updated NAP

2. The State’s Duty to Protect Human Rights [page 9]

Actions taken 

(vi) supported the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises in their role to promote uptake of the UNGPs and develop guidance and best practice.

(ix) strengthened international rules relating to digital surveillance, including leading work in the Wassenaar Arrangement to adopt new controls on specific technologies of concern. Specifically new controls were agreed on:

  1. equipment and software for creating and delivering “intrusion software” designed to be covertly installed on devices to extract data.
  2. “internet surveillance systems” which can monitor and analyse internet traffic and extract information about individuals and their communications.

Government commitments [pages 10-11]

18. The Government will do the following to reinforce its implementation of its commitments under Pillar 1 of the UNGPs:

(ii) Work with EU partners to implement the UNGPs across member states and internationally, starting with the undertaking made by member states to develop their own national plans.

(iv) Work with government, industry and civil society members of the International Code of Conduct Association to establish an international mechanism to monitor compliance with the Code. This will take the form of (i) certification against the Code, (ii) monitoring by the Association, and (iii) a complaints process. We continue to engage with government and non-state clients to promote the Code and the Association.

(v) Continue to work closely with Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative (VPI) member governments, extractive companies and civil society organisations, to promote greater understanding of the Voluntary Principles and strengthen the implementation, effectiveness and membership. To maintain the momentum from our chairmanship March 2014-March 2015, we will continue to work on better corporate implementation of the Voluntary Principles on the ground. This includes maintaining dialogues with ‘host’ governments. For example, we have worked with the Government of Angola to promote the Voluntary Principles to the participating governments of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

(vii) Support the EU commitment to consider the possible human rights impacts of free trade agreements, including where these include investment protection provisions, and take appropriate steps including through the incorporation of human rights clauses as appropriate.

(viii) Continue to work through our embassies and high commissions to support human rights defenders working on issues related to business and human rights in line with EU Guidelines on human rights defenders.

Support for Land Tenure and Other Property Rights [page 13]

The UK Government is committed to supporting the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (Land Guidelines, VGGT)[1] including through commitments to accelerate VGGT implementation during its G8 Presidency in 2013.

The UK supports the VGGT:

  • Through its funding to the Food and Agriculture Organisation in a three-year programme for £4.9 million to raise awareness, improve tenure governance, and support global reporting on progress with VGGT implementation;
  • Through its leadership in the 2013 G7 commitment to implement the VGGT through country partnerships with interested governments. These partnerships aim to accelerate and target support to countries’ existing land governance programmes in conjunction with businesses, in particular farmers, and civil society;
  • The global donor working group on land chaired by the UK (DFID) in its inaugural year has published a global land programme database and map. The database[2] includes an initial 589 programmes in 127 countries with a combined worth of US$4.9 billion. All programmes are mapped against relevant sections of the human rights based VGGT;
  • Jointly with US, Germany, France, the AU Land Policy Initiative and FAO, the UK has developed a land investment due diligence framework[3] based on the VGGT and other international standards, to guide private sector investments under the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.
  • In 2015, under the German Presidency, the UK joined a new G7 commitment to align all its Overseas Development Assistance-supported investments with the VGGT[4]. This is being taken forward over the coming years.
  • DFID is increasing its work on land, bilaterally and at the global level (for an overview of what we do to drive responsible land investments by the private sector, see our 2nd Land Policy Bulletin 1[5])