Opening Remarks by Ms. Elaine Conkievich

Resident Representative, UNDP Mongolia

24 September 2020

3rd floor, UN House

Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues

Good morning,

On behalf of UNDP Mongolia, I am pleased to welcome you to today’s training on Business and Human Rights being organized by the UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, with the support of UNDP’s Regional Office in Bangkok and the Business and Human Rights Asia Programme.

As you all can agree, human rights is a particularly relevant issue today due to the globally challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic as we are seeing a rapid increase in human rights concerns around the world. I am very proud to be here today attending the first ever large-scale awareness building event involving multi-sector stakeholders who will be directly engaged in the development and implementation of the national agenda for Business and Human Rights in Mongolia.

In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a set of guidelines for the member states and businesses to prevent, address and remedy adverse impacts of business activities on human rights. The three key pillars of the principles included State duty to protect human rights, business responsibility to respect human rights, and access to remedy.

The Principles are now being widely adopted by nations around the world and as such Mongolia has initiated development of its National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in 2018 spearheaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UNDP commends the Government of Mongolia for its strong initiative to adopt the principles and enhance thebusiness and human rights environment and practices in Mongolia through engaging key stakeholders from the government, private sector, and civil society.

The completion of the National Action Plan is an instrumental step toward establishing the necessary legal and policy framework setting a clear guideline for businesses to follow and implement in respect to human rights as well as the implementation of appropriate remedy mechanisms. As the business and human rights principles and guidelines are a fresh topic in Mongolia, UNDP is pleased to provide technical advisory, capacity building, and awareness raising to further accelerate the Country’s progress and complete the development of the National Action Plan.

UNDP Mongolia has been working closely with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and developed the first National Baseline Assessment on Business and Human Rights which will become a strong foundation for developing National Action Plan. We also had the privilege to invite Prof. Surya Deva, Member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and Business and Human Rights Asia Programme’s Team Leader Mr. Livio Sarandrea to Mongolia in 2019 and received their valuable advices and recommendations on National Action Plan development roadmap. And we welcome them again today for this training.

As Mongolia’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights is expected to be enacted in mid-2021, the subsequent challenge will be its implementation which will require consolidated and comprehensive efforts from all the stakeholders. I sincerely hope that today’s training will be an opportunity for you to receive the latest international business and human rights standards and further enhance and improve your skills and knowledge to develop a comprehensive National Action Plan for Mongolia.

UNDP Mongolia is looking forward to working with all of our partners and stakeholders to ensure successful development and prompt application of the National Action Plan. You all have an important role to play in building forward better Mongolia and I thank you for your active participation and commitment.

It is my pleasure now to welcome His Excellency Traian Hristea, the European Union Ambassador to Mongolia. The European Union strongly supports the Business and Human Rights initiative in the Asia Pacific region and UNDP is pleased to have such a committed partner advocating for a common cause regionally.