South Africa

Status

There has been no official commitment to develop a NAP by the South African Government. All related activities are being led by academia and civil society.

Process

The South African Government has not made an official commitment to developing a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.

To date, all efforts to push for the development of a NAP have been led by academia and civil society.

One such effort is the “Shadow” National Baseline Assessment of Current Implementation of Business and Human Rights Frameworks released on 5 April 2016 by The Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, with support from the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable.

Another effort is the Human Rights and Business Country Guide on South Africa which was published in March 2015. It contains information regarding the potential and actual human rights impacts of businesses operating in South Africa. The Guide was produced by the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). The aim of the Guide is to improve the human rights practices of companies operating in South Africa.

National Baseline Assessment (NBA)

• Published in April 2016 and available here.
• Developed as an independent initiative to stimulate the development of a future NAP on BHR. An inaugural BHR NAP has not been developed as of February 2023.
• Conducted by academics from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria with support from ICAR.
• Utilised the DIHR/ ICAR National Baseline Assessment Template. Based on desktop research.

According to its authors, an updated national baseline assessment would be necessary if plans to produce a NAP on business and human rights were adopted in order to reflect any developments since the report was published.