Chapter 1 – Report of the Policy, Law and Complaints Group also provides policy direction for the formulation of a NAP on business and human rights for Malaysia, with a view towards promoting greater respect for human rights by State and non-State actors including businesses, civil society, and individuals and groups affected by the adverse impacts of business activities on human rights. The objective of the NAP is to address the challenge of properly managing such adverse impacts, in order to ensure that Malaysia’s transformation into a fully developed country is undertaken in a sustainable manner. The Strategic Framework and its recommendations are based on the following understandings: (i) That the State and the business sector have complementary but differentiated roles with regard to human rights. Corporate respect for human rights requires the independent action of businesses themselves. At the same time, the State should provide an appropriate regulatory and policy environment to foster corporate respect for human rights. (ii) That a root cause of the prevalence of business-related human rights abuses around the world has been the practice by governments of isolating their processes for regulating human rights compliance away from, or at the periphery of, their processes for regulating business and economic activities. The integration of both these types of processes is needed. (iii) That while it is the governments that have the legitimacy, capacities, and resources to make the difficult balancing decisions required to reconcile competing societal needs, the occurrence of business-related human rights abuses signals that more needs to be done to get the balance right. (iv) That it is essential for a process to develop a NAP on business and human rights to be Government-owned and led, and for the NAP be formulated based on adequate, informed, and inclusive stakeholder consultations. In addition, with regard to practical ways in which the Strategic Framework may be used by Government and non-Government actors, the Commission recommends: (i) For Government Actors • That the Strategic Framework be used to identify and engage relevant ministries and agencies to participate in a cross-Governmental effort to develop the NAP; and • Recognising that an initial NAP may not be able to address all the policy objectives identified, that the Strategic Framework nevertheless be presented for stakeholder consultations and given full consideration before selecting the policy areas to address in the initial NAP. 37 BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 37 08/04/2016 3:32 PM

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