A/HRC/38/48 sustainable growth, respect for the environment and operation with high ethical values.39 Within the Union, there is a committee of export credit agencies from emerging markets known as the Prague Club Committee. The majority of members are from smaller markets in Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. 49. In 2012, the United States and China agreed to discuss a set of new global guidelines on export credits through a new international working group on export credits. The International Working Group is led by China, Brazil, the United States and the European Union as rotating chairs. It currently has 18 participants, including South Africa and the Russian Federation. India is an observer in the process.40 Neither environmental nor social impacts of export credit agency activities are currently on the agenda of the Working Group. 50. Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa currently meet to discuss export credit policies in the BRICS Forum.41 The principles of the Forum include a commitment to supporting sustainable development, strong, balanced and inclusive growth, financial stability, and a balanced combination of measures ensuring social and economic development and protection of the environment, providing an opening for a discussion of human rights. At present, the priority areas of cooperation do not include social risks or human rights. 51. OECD is currently the main organization that has incorporated human rights into export credit decision-making. The OECD Working Party on Export Credits and Credit Guarantees (Export Credit Group) was established in 1963 to carry forward the work of OECD on export credits, including working out common guiding principles, such as on environmental and social issues. OECD has developed recommendations for export credit agencies with respect to environmental and social due diligence, which are intended to guide the work of the official export credit agencies of member States. 52. The Export Credit Group currently has 33 Members. Chile and Iceland do not participate in the work of the Group as they do not have official support programmes in place. Non-members such as Brazil, Romania and the Russian Federation regularly attend Group events as invitees.42 There is a separate export credit arrangement, whereby a group of OECD member and non-member States meet to develop common practices focusing on price and terms of credit to ensure a level playing field.43 53. The Export Credits Group has negotiated several successive OECD instruments (the Common Approaches) designed to provide a framework for export credit agencies when addressing the potential environmental and social impacts of projects. The two most relevant documents are the 2012 and 2016 revisions of the Common Approaches. 44 In undertaking work on environmental and social issues, the Group has been assisted, since 2004, by its practitioners’ group, consisting of the environmental and/or social experts from export credit agencies who are responsible for undertaking due diligence and monitoring of projects. The practitioners meet separately from the Export Credits Group several times a year to discuss implementation of the Common Approaches. 54. The 2012 recommendation was the first instrument to mention human rights reflecting the adoption of the Guiding Principles, which were referenced in its preamble, asserting that “social impacts” encompassed relevant adverse project-related human rights impacts and that such impacts included forced labour, child labour and life-threatening 39 40 41 42 43 44 See Berne Union value statement, available at www.sid.si/sites/www.sid.si/files/documents/splosnidokumenti/berne_union_value_statement_2004.pdf. Berne Union members discuss environmental and social issues but have no publicly available guidelines or programmes. See http://capexil.org/background-note-iwg-on-export-credit/. See brics.itamaraty.gov.br/images/pdf/BRICSMOU.doc Information provided by the OECD Export Credit Group secretariat. The Participants Group is not an OECD body and does not, therefore report to the OECD Council, however it meets under the auspices of OECD with support from the OECD export credits secretariat. See OECD Council recommendation on common approaches for officially supported export credits and environmental and social due diligence, adopted by the Council in June 2012 and the revision adopted in April 2016. 11