STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK ON A NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON BUSINESS AND
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR MALAYSIA
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Ensure that migrant workers who are victims of forced labour have access to effective judicial
remedy (Guiding Principle 26) and provide effective administrative complaints processes to
facilitate their claims (Guiding Principle 27)
39. States have also used regulatory innovations to address the overseas human rights impacts of
their businesses. Examples of the regulatory tools used include:
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Enacting extraterritorial legislation penalising certain corporate conduct even when conducted
overseas (Guiding Principle 3a). For example, Singapore’s 2014 Transboundary Haze Pollution
Act applies to entities whose conduct causes or contributes to transboundary haze pollution
in Singapore, regardless of whether these entities have a connection to Singapore44
Requiring businesses to report on their overseas human rights impacts, including that of their
overseas subsidiaries (Guiding Principle 3d)45
Including business and human rights in the agendas of overseas missions, including trade
missions, by, for example, encouraging these missions to brief businesses and government
ministers on the human rights implications of business operations. This is a form of fostering
policy coherence (Guiding Principle 8).46
40. Access to remedies should be an essential issue to be included in any effort to address specific
business and human rights challenges.
41. In addressing these specific business and human rights challenges, the Government should also
collaborate with and support relevant multi-stakeholder, private sector and non-governmental
initiatives. In relation to the palm oil sector, for example, the Government has been promoting
and providing support to the RSPO. It could also encourage Malaysian palm oil companies to
use recently-issued civil society guidance on fair labour and human rights in the palm oil sector,47
or publicise good practice examples by companies, such as a “sustainability dashboard” by the
world’s largest palm oil trader that lists the names and locations of its palm oil suppliers in Malaysia
and Indonesia.48
42. Addressing adverse business-related human rights impacts in relation to thematic issues
and sectors is a significant endeavour. The government should consider establishing a crossgovernmental and/or multi-stakeholder working group to address individual thematic issues and
sectors included in the NAP.
43. The Strategic Framework does not identify the priority thematic issues and sectors that the NAP
should address. These should be identified through a Government-led process of assessment and
broad-based multi-stakeholder consultations.
44. Recommendation: The Commission therefore recommends that a Malaysian NAP on business and
human rights should identify and take action in relation to specific thematic issues and sectors,
considering both domestic and overseas impacts. These actions should be based on an adequate
understanding of the nature and causes of the relevant adverse human rights impacts, with input
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