By Francis Ntow
Accra, Sept. 7, GNA – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Government of Japan are supporting Ghana to implement policies to prevent forced labour and discrimination at workplaces to promote responsible business.
The support is to further the achievement of the country’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda, which aims at seeing “a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity.”
Ghana, therefore, launched the implementation of a Business and Human Rights (BHR) project in Accra to address social inequality, economic exclusion, and climate change, with businesses acting as a catalyst.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, noted that with the private sector playing a leading role, Ghana would have a “more equitable and sustainable society.”
He was confident the project would strengthen efforts to better equip the Government and companies to understand and act upon their duties and responsibilities to prevent human right abuses.
“UNDP will continue to support efforts aimed at promoting the rights of all and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs through all its interventions in Ghana,” Mr Khoshmukhamedov, said.
He referred to a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which found about 500 million jobs being lost, with almost half of the world’s 3.3 billion workforce likely to lose their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UNDP Deputy Resident Representative also explained that the pandemic and its associated challenges had hindered the implementation of some of the SDGs and asked businesses to double up effort to protect workers’ rights.
Ms Mercy Larbi, Deputy Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), said Ghana would by the end of 2023 complete its National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights to foster responsible business practices.
She said, the plan, upon taken effect, would require businesses to provide Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) as a prerequisite to work in the country, which would “improve the human rights situation in Ghana.”
Ms Larbi said CHRAJ would be committed to ensuring businesses take measures to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how they addressed human rights abuses through enforcement of the law and heightened education.
Ms, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, noted that businesses had become an important player in enforcing human rights.
She, therefore, urged all businesses in the country to have “an active posture to undertake human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, and mitigate the negative impact of human rights abuses on people.”
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu, emphasised on the need for businesses to comply with human rights laws, noting that its promotion at the business level served as a way for companies to remain internationally competitive.
He charged businesses in the country to respect human rights by conducting due diligence in the current international trends to mitigate legal and reputational risks, which would show an appeal to workers that they were offering an attractive working environment.
The BHR project will be implemented in 16 other countries – Kenya, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
GNA