Businesses as a key driver to the implementation of Responsible Business Conduct in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (ILO News) - Around 750 participants participated—100 offline, 400 virtually via zoom and 250 via live streaming—at the national seminar on Strengthening National Strategy on Business and Human Rights for Decent Work held by the ILO’s Japan-funded regional projects in partnership with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Ministry of Manpower.

The ILO’s support was provided by the Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Supply Chains Asia (RISSC) Project, funded by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and the Skills Development and Responsible Business Conduct Project, funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Both projects focus on promoting a more responsible business environment by improving the implementation of business and human rights in both policy and practice in Indonesia, particularly in electronic industry.

Responsible business conduct helps ensuring businesses’ transparency and fairness according to the government regulations and laws.

Arsjad Rasyid, Chair of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin)

Held in Jakarta on 21 August, the participants included members of National Task Force for Business and Human Rights across Indonesia. They joined other attending organizations such as the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), trade union confederations and other relevant national and international organizations.

Officially opened by Afriansyah Noor, Deputy Minister of Manpower, Dhahana Putra, Director General of Human Rights of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and Diego Rei, ILO’s Labour Market and Employment Specialist (read the press release), the seminar presented two sessions of interactive discussions highlighting the tripartite perspectives of the government, employers and workers.

© ILO

© ILO

The first session underscored the importance of well-coordination among relevant partners, particularly inter-ministerial relations to ensure the implementation of National Strategy on Business and Human Rights in Indonesia. Representatives from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as well as Ministry of Human Rights—Dr. Harniati, Director of Human Rights of Cooperation and Agatha Widianawati, Director of Industrial Relation Dispute Settlement—shared the joint cooperation that has been built between these two ministries and with other relevant ministries.

Business actors must have policies related to human rights by carrying out due diligence and taking efforts to address any allegations of human rights violations.

Darwoto, Deputy of Apindo’s for Employment Affairs

Meanwhile, the second session emphasized the key involvement of businesses, including trade unions as the voices of workers, in implementing PRISMA, a self-assessment tool for business in implementing responsible business conduct. Chair of Kadin, Arsjad Rasyid and Deputy of Apindo’s for Employment Affairs, Darwoto agreed that responsible business conduct is key to ensure the labour rights and improve the competitiveness of Indonesian businesses at the international market and beyond.

“Responsible business conduct helps ensuring businesses’ transparency and fairness according to the government regulations and laws,” stated Arsjad; while Darwoto said: “Business actors must have policies related to human rights by carrying out due diligence and taking efforts to address any allegations of human rights violations.”

The seminar concluded with a number of recommendations, highlighting the crucial engagement of businesses in implementing current national strategy, narrowing the gaps of international instruments on Business and Human Rights and current practices as well as integrating existing assessment tools for responsible business through social dialogue mechanisms at national, regional, sectoral and enterprise level that, in turn, would lead to human rights due diligence.