Ecuador

Status

On 15 October 2020, Ecuador’s government formally announced their commitment to develop a business and human rights national action plan.

The official press release is available here and a video of the launch event has been made available.

Process

Since the announcement that the government will conduct efforts to develop a NAP, there have been stakeholder meetings from the last quarter of 2020 through the first quarter of 2021. Such meetings included:

• On November 17, 2020, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted a capacitation workshop on Business and Human Rights with 250 employees.
• On March 18, 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a workshop with to share tools and best practices on business and human rights with other government agencies, such as the Human Rights Secretariat, the “Planifica Ecuador” Technical Secretariat, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Judiciary Council, and the State Attorney’s Office. This workshop was delivered with contributions from the Colombian Presidential Council for Human Rights, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights under the Responsible Business Conduct in Latin America and the Caribbean (CERALC) program.
• On April 7, 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with OHCHR and the UN Global Compact Network, organized a roundtable for businesses actors in preparation for the NAP (video available here).
• On April 15, 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with OHCHR and the Ecuadorian People’s Defender Officer (Defensoría), convened a roundtable with more than 100 representatives of Ecuadorian CSOs. The roundtable was attended by representatives of unions and worker’s associations, human and environmental rights defenders, indigenous peoples, traditional minority communities, and universities (video available here).

On December 6, 2022, the OECD published a Responsible Business Conduct Policy Review on Ecuador. The OECD described the review as “an important input to promote the RBC agenda in Ecuador, as well as for the development of the country’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.”

Stakeholders views and analysis on the NAP

• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Responsible Business Conduct Policy Review: Ecuador, 2022: https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/responsible-business-conduct-policy-reviews-ecuador.htm