Background
States have a legal responsibility to protect human rights in accordance with their domestic legislation and international human rights instruments. The actual protection of human rights, however, is increasingly also dependent on the behaviour and practice of companies.
Guiding principles for companies have existed for a long period of time, for instance the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. However, the past decade has also seen adoption of legally binding obligations regarding the human rights responsibility of companies. Such legislation was introduced in Norway through the Transparency Act, which entered into force 1 July 2022. The Act obliges Norwegian companies to perform due diligence assessments to ensure their respect for fundamental human rights. In July 2024, the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) entered into force. The Directive is categorised as EEA-relevant.
In the preparatory work of the Transparency Act, an evaluation of the Act “after some time”, was foreseen. Such an evaluation would review the Act in light of the CSDDD, and this would probably necessitate amendments to Norwegian law. There is thus reason to believe that the Transparency Act might be amended upon implementation of the CSDDD, because the Directive in many areas has a wider scope than the Act. One example is that CSDDD regulates the impact companies have on climate and the environment, including instances where this does not result in an adverse impact on human rights.
Description of the Project
With this project, NIM aims to clarify the scope of corporations’ responsibilities for environmental and climate-related impacts in accordance with CSDDD. This part of the project will have an international focus and will therefore be released in both Norwegian and English.
The project will look closer at the relationship between the Transparency Act and CSDDD in the area of climate and the environment. This will contribute to NIM’s recommendations to the Government on how the Directive should be transposed into Norwegian law.
NIM also aims to assess whether selected Norwegian companies’ due diligence assessments and reports are in accordance with these obligations.
The aims of the projects are to
- contribute to a satisfactory transposition of CSDDD with regard to climate, the environment and human rights in all EU Member States
- increase awareness and encourage dialogue between national human rights institutions, companies, governments and civil society with regard to human rights, the climate and the environment.
This project is supported by the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
Duration of the Project
The project begins during autumn 2024 and will result in the publishment of a report in autumn 2025. This will be directed towards the Government, relevant companies and civil society.
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