Key Issues requires business enterprises to avoid violating human rights. Granted that the actions of business enterprises are regulated through other existing laws, such as those related to companies, land, labour, human trafficking, and environment, which laws essentially protect human rights, the enforcement of some of those laws, however, remains weak. In addition to the above, the awareness level among business actors of their responsibilities towards human rights remains low. This is evidenced during the Commission’s discussions with business actors, where there is a tendency for them to equate corporate social responsibility (CSR) with their contribution to human rights. While the Commission welcomes CSR initiatives, it must be underscored that unlike CSR, which is usually a top-down approach where a company can decide to pick and choose the issues they care to address, human rights places the respect towards the inherent dignity of persons at the centre of business operations, which includes ensuring that they do not infringe the rights provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in the course of their profit making activity. In order to strengthen the roles and responsibilities of business enterprises towards human rights, this year, the Commission published a report entitled “Strategic Framework on a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights for Malaysia” as a key deliverable outcome to the Commission’s earlier project initiated in 2014 entitled “Promoting Business and Human Rights in Malaysia for Business Success and Inclusive Growth”. The report was launched by the Minister in charge of human rights from the Prime Minister’s Department. Through these initiatives, the Commission hopes to intensify public discourse on the responsibilities of private enterprises toward human rights and, by way of the Strategic Framework, provide a policy direction in order to have Malaysia’s very own national action plan that places the protection of, and respect towards, human rights at the heart of business operations. Through this Project, the Commission introduces a soft approach so as to obtain the participation and support of business actors from the beginning of the process. Indeed the Commission believes that the above soft approach must be supported with the effective enforcement of existing laws that regulate the actions of business enterprises. As such, the Commission reiterates that while the Government cannot be held responsible per se for any human rights abuses perpetrated by business enterprises, the Government may still be in breach of their human rights obligations if the abuses were the result of the Government’s failure to take appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress private actors’ abuse. Besides ensuring the effective regulation of local businesses, there is also an expectation that the Government take cognizance of possible human rights implications before allowing any foreign investment into Malaysia as well as before agreeing to any international trade agreements. Principle 9 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights clarifies that while the Government should provide investor protection, this must be balanced with adequate policy and regulatory ability to safeguard human rights when negotiating investment 26 BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 26 08/04/2016 3:32 PM