ICAR & PODER Partner to Support the Development of a National Action Plan on Business & Human Rights in Mexico

The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) and the Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER) have partnered to support the development of a National Action Plan (NAP) on business and human rights in Mexico.

This initiative is a follow-up project to ICAR’s seminal report with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) on NAPs, entitled National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights: A Toolkit for the Development, Implementation, and Review of State Commitment to Business and Human Rights Frameworks, launched in June 2014. In equal measure, the project is a follow-up to PODER’s coordination of Mexican civil society organizations through the Focal Group on Business and Human Rights in Mexico, which seeks to strengthen civil society working around business and human rights issues and impact the Mexican government and other interested parties engaging with this issue.

The first phase of this year-long project will focus on activating and building the capacity of key partners in Mexico on NAPs on business and human rights issues, frameworks, and tools. This will be achieved through the hosting of five regional civil society discussions across the country.

The second phase of the project will support national efforts in Mexico to develop and complete a National Baseline Assessments (NBA) of current implementation of business and human rights frameworks in Mexico. Utilizing the data gathered through the completion of the NBA, the project will then develop key recommendations and priority areas in relation to the content of a prospective Mexican NAP and the process to be followed in its development.

For more information on the project, please contact Cindy Woods, ICAR’s Legal and Policy Fellow, at cindy@icar.ngo or Ivette Gonzalez, PODER’s Strategic Engagement Associate", at ivette.gonzalez@projectpoder.org.

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The Focal Group on Business and Human Rights is comprised of the following Mexican organizations: Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, A.C. (CEMDA); Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos (CIEDH); Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”; Comité de Defensa Integral de Derechos Humanos Gobixha A.C.; Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA); Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC); Proyecto sobre Organización, Desarrollo, Educación e Investigación (PODER), acompañados por Brigadas Internacionales de Paz (PBI).