Preface
Updated OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct
Norway’s NCP continues its enthusiastic efforts with the help of stronger, updated Guidelines.
The year 2023 was a milestone for the OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct. Following an extensive process, the updated version of the Guidelines was adopted at the OECD Ministerial Council in June 2023. Norway, with the support of the NCP, was actively involved in the updates.
The Guidelines were published almost 50 years ago and have been revised and updated several times. During the last revision in 2011, the chapter on human rights was incorporated and aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).
This time around, the chapter on the environment was subject to a comprehensive and much needed update and revision. The Guidelines now provide clear recommendations for conducting business in line with internationally agreed climate and biodiversity goals. Among other things, businesses must perform due diligence with respect to climate change; loss of biodiversity; degradation of land, marine and freshwater ecosystems; deforestation; air, water and soil pollution; and waste management. These are important updates that make it clear that businesses are expected to align with the adhering states’ international environment, climate and biodiversity commitments. This establishes that the private sector must pull its weight to achieve common goals in this area and take an active role in addressing the great challenge of our time.
Other important changes were also made, including strengthening the protection of at-risk groups, including indigenous peoples. Human rights defenders who voice concerns regarding harmful business conduct are one of the groups that now receive greater attention. Another part of the Guidelines introduces due diligence expectations in connection with the development, financing, sale, licensing, trade and use of technology, including gathering and using data. Recommendations have also been included on how businesses are expected to carry out due diligence with respect to consequences and business relationships associated with the use of their products and services.
The examples show that the Guidelines have now been modernised to ensure that they are ‘fit for purpose’ for the years to come. The OECD Guidelines will thus remain the main guidelines for businesses that want to demonstrate responsible business conduct.
The Guidelines’ procedures for the National Contact Point system were also updated. The framework for the NCPs was bolstered, although the Guidelines still give states considerable flexibility with respect to how they are organised. Unfortunately, there is still some way to go to ensure that they all work equally well. It is therefore encouraging that the Ministerial Council also decided that all the adhering states must ‘make available human and financial resources to their NCPs so that they can effectively fulfil their responsibilities in a way that fully meets the effectiveness criteria described in the Procedures attached to this Decision, taking into account internal budget capacity and practices’. This bodes well for the future and must be followed up.
For the Norwegian NCP, the updated Guidelines are a source of great inspiration for continuing its work to contribute to responsible business conduct, and for cooperating with governments, the business sector, trade unions and civil society to raise the level of knowledge and implementation. The updated Guidelines provide a much better basis for addressing the business sector’s responsibility to safeguard the environment and biodiversity, and, not least, businesses’ responsibility to contribute to achieving the climate goals for the benefit of the planet and future generations.
Frode Elgesem
Chair of the Norwegian NCP