"Revision of the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights: Peace Brigades International briefing", June 2015

Protection of human rights defenders is already a theme of the existing NAP, and through its embassies the UK has done significant work to implement this commitment. The approach reflects a growing UK foreign policy stance that safeguarding the work of civil society activists is the most effective long term approach to realising societies that respect and uphold human rights...It is critical that the UK uses its diplomatic voice to champion international standards guaranteeing the right of civil society to participate and be recognised as key actors in the debate around natural resource extraction...The revised UK plan should also look to incorporate [a] commitment [to step up efforts to protect Human Rights Defenders including social partners]...it is important that the current set of directives in the UK NAP is developed into a more comprehensive and systematic strategy...a new mechanism needs to be introduced to provide public human rights guidance for countries [where the UK does not have UKTI presence, but is active in trade and investment such as Guatemala and Honduras]...In order to ensure companies adopt due diligence policies that genuinely address risks, it is important that the government advocates more strongly for the uptake of independent, transparent and publically available Human Rights Impact Assessments...It is important that the revised NAP commits to setting clear in-country plans and targets for improving human rights protection mechanisms and reducing impunity surrounding attacks against HRDs.