Business & Human Rights Training for Managers

Updated: March 28, 2017
In: News

Business & Human Rights (B&HR) have now become focus, concern and commitment for private sector, Government and related stakeholders to implement in daily business operations for sustainable business. To get more companies adopt and implement the (UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), IGCN conducted Business and Human Rights Training for Managers. This Training was conducted on 28-29 March 2018 at Ashley Hotel, Jakarta and attended by 62 participants from 31 companies from Medan, Kutai, Surabaya, Bandung and Jakarta.

BHR Training was opened by Ir. Arry Ardanta Sigit, M.Sc, Director of Human Rights Cooperation from Ministry of Law and Human Rights, who admitted that some companies are still not aware of UNGPs. Therefore, they have not yet obeyed/do not yet obey the norms & principles of BHR.

The successful implementation of UNGPs in business will require commitment of Top Management. Therefore, the participants of this training were fully endorsed by their Board of Directors.

According to, Ms. Rully Sandra, Consultant for Business and Human Rights, who is also one of the Trainers for this B&HR Training,“Companies’ commitment towards human rights is necessary. But what’s more important is the genuine implementation of this commitment.”

Sharing similar view with Ms. Sandra, DR. Semerdanta Pusaka, who is also a Consultant and Trainer for this B&HR Training, addresses that the manager has to understand and respect the employees’ human rights in the company. He believes that companies that respect the employees’ human rights are more desired by the market and implementing B&HR is not expenses, but an investment.

Through multiple exercises, this training is expected for Managers to improve their knowledge, as well as their capacity to understand on the concept and practical applications of UNGPs, to create action plan and clear approach to implement UNGPs, and to know why and how to assess the human rights impacts on business operations. As stated by one of the participants from Holcim Indonesia, Ms. Ummu Azizah Mukarnawati, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, “Business & Human Rights are interconnected. In business, it contains many vital aspects such as people, environment, and social, and these aspects have such needs that have to be fulfilled. And when we are talking about needs, we will emphasize on ‘rights’, particularly human rights. Therefore, it is important for business to fulfill human rights.”

It is expected that invited companies will make a commitment after attending the Business & Human Rights Training and for Managers to be champions of the implementation of UNGPs in their companies and their sphere of influence. The champion team will be expected to introduce and disseminate the UNGPs Framework within the company, in the future, become trainers of Business & Human Rights, and train the sphere of influence in their respective networks and lastly, to take follow up actions necessary in their respective companies and report back to IGCN and APINDO on the progress within 3-6 months period after the training.

List of the companies/organizations that participated to this Training: