The South Africa Human Right and Business project started in 2006. It is a co-operation between the Netherlands based HOM and several civil society organisations in South Africa. The project partner organizations are:

• The African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC);
• The Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA);
• The Bench Marks Foundation of Southern Africa for Corporate Social Responsibility (BeFSA CSR);
• The Khulumani Support Group (Khulumani);
• Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA); and
• The University of Cape Town (UCT) Environmental Monitoring Unit

In addition a number of resource organisations and companies are involved in the project, such as the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC): the National Business Initiative (NBI); Institute of Democracy South Africa (IDASA) and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA).

Through capacity building and networking amongst South African civil society organizations, the South African Human Rights & Business projects wants to create sustainable promotion of practices of human rights inclusion into daily corporate business in South Africa.

The project understands that the primary responsibility to respect, protect and promote human rights is with the South African Government. However, the role of companies in promoting and securing human rights is increasingly emphasised. Companies are accountable for their behaviour and the consequences thereof. Therefore, the business community has a responsibility to uphold human rights in the workplace and more broadly within its sphere of influence.

The Project promotes the Human Rights Compliance Assessment South Africa (HRCA SA) and the South African Country Risk Assessment (CRA) which will assist large, medium and small-sized multinational companies in developing their human rights policies, principles and practices in a structural and transparent manner. They will also assist companies with the (re)formulation of codes of conduct and the preparation of reports on social policies and practices.

The HRCA SA and CRA are designed to help companies to detect potential human rights violations caused by the (in)direct effect of their operations on employees, local residents and other stakeholders in South Africa. In the long term this will contribute to sustainable social-economic development

Use of the HRCA SA and C R A can positively influence:

• Working conditions within the company and chain
• Understanding of the society in which the company works
• Trust of community groups in the company
• Trust of non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) in the company
• Stakeholders relations
• View of consumers and customers
• Good reputation of company and products
• Effective identification and management of risks
• Motivation and productivity of workers
• Relations with corporate partners and sub-contractors
• Investment climate

AICC acts as the Focal Point for the Human Rights and Business project in South Africa. The organisation distributes and provides information to all organisations involved in the project and central contact organisation for all matters and information relating to the project.

For more information about the project and tools visit http://hrbpsa.aiccafrica.org