A/HRC/32/45
Principles and the Guiding Principles Reporting Framework.52 State-owned enterprises in
Chile, Norway and Sweden, for instance, are asked to report according to the Global
Reporting Initiative guidelines.
82.
Finally, aggregate reporting by the State on the activities and performance of the
enterprises it owns is an additional means of improving companies’ transparency. It is also
a way to increase the State’s transparency and accountability with regard to the
requirements it sets for State-owned enterprises. In Norway and Sweden, the respective
ownership entities publish an annual report on the State’s ownership, which reviews the
corporate social responsibility performance of all enterprises.
H.
Ensure effective remedy
83.
As part of their duty to protect, States must take all appropriate steps to ensure that
victims of human rights abuses have access to effective remedy (pillar III of the Guiding
Principles). This applies to abuses by State-owned enterprises and private companies
equally. Given the separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive branch —
more specifically, in this case, the department or entity exercising ownership rights — the
State duty to ensure access to effective remedy for abuses by State-owned enterprises is not
distinct to its duty to ensure remedy for abuses involving private companies. The ownership
entity must respect the independence of judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms
and not interfere in their proceedings. This limits the State’s scope for action as an owner
and might explain the lack of State policies and practices in this regard.
84.
As the owner of State-owned enterprises, the State should make sure that: (a)
the enterprises it owns or controls do not obstruct justice; (b) they cooperate fully
with judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms; and (c) they fully comply with
their responsibility to respect human rights, including providing remediation for
human rights abuses that they may be causing or contributing to. These considerations
are relevant for all three main categories of remedy mechanisms covered by pillar III of the
Guiding Principles.
85.
The first category is State-based judicial mechanisms. States must ensure access to
judicial remedies for victims of all abuses, whether committed by a State-owned enterprise
or a private company. In addition, as the owner of State-owned enterprises, the State needs
to set clear expectations that: (a) when there are legal proceedings against a State-owned
enterprise, the enterprise should not interfere in the judicial proceedings or use its special
relationship with the State to interfere in or block proceedings; (b) States and State-owned
enterprises should carefully consider the circumstances under which the enterprise might
claim immunity based on its association with a State. Claims of State immunity in human
rights cases often constitute a risk of being a barrier in access to remedy. The expectations
of the State as owner of State-owned enterprises should be that the scope for claiming
immunity should be limited to the bare minimum and that State-owned enterprises fully
cooperate in judicial proceedings.53
52
53
See the United Nations Guiding Principles Reporting Framework (2015), available at
www.shiftproject.org/project/human-rights-reporting-and-assurance-frameworks-initiative-rafi. The
reporting framework enables companies to report in-depth on their responsibility to respect human
rights.
See United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property; see also
the Explanatory Memorandum to Council of Europe Committee of Ministers recommendation
CM/Rec(2016)3, para. 61.
19
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents