Level of business awareness with responsible behavior standards

Today, the level of awareness of companies in Kyrgyzstan with the standards of responsible behavior is low.

Business does not hide the need for economic arguments in the dialogue on human rights. There is a need to realize the economic impact of respecting human rights. Without a lens of economic effect, business perceives the topic of responsible business behavior as another limitation of business operating. 

It is important to convey to business the understanding without ensuring respect for human rights in the modern world, it is impossible to conduct sustainable business. Given the choice between behavior that will bring profit but violate human rights, and refusing such behavior with disadvantageous consequences for themselves, responsible business chooses in favor of the second option. It is in contrary to the economic argument. Because it is important not to be associated with human rights violations.

Such behavior may not bring benefits at the moment, but is more beneficial in the long run: the company forms the image of a responsible company in the field of human rights.

For example, sometimes it is much easier for a company to use a story based on gender or national stereotypes in their promotion campaign. Such advertising attracts easier attention in the market. However, it has a negative impact on human rights, as it contributes to the enhancing stereotypes in society.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), an additional barrier is that this business is in resource limitations to form its awareness in the field of human rights, develop policies, and identify risks of a negative impact on human rights in their activities. However, SMBs should be aware that the human rights expectations of such companies are proportional to their ability to take action to assess their human rights impact and prevent potential negative impacts. In addition, the state, civil society and big business should take actions to support small and medium-sized businesses in the formation of responsible behavior.

Large multinational companies play the most crucial role in raising company awareness of human rights. For example, local businesses are increasingly faced with the fact that multinational companies send them relevant requests, which in turn encourages local companies to develop appropriate policies and pay attention to human rights issues.

Investors, international organizations that implement relevant projects in the country and involve companies in participating in projects can also act as such drivers of responsible business behavior.

Low awareness of the standards of responsible business behavior has the consequence when they are either identified with corporate social responsibility (charitable actions), or are perceived by business as a restriction on entrepreneurial activity, placing additional burdens on business.

Large companies show more responsible behavior, a better understanding of legal requirements in the field of human rights, awareness of international standards in the field of human rights. This is due to several factors: the presence of more human and financial resources (some companies send employees for training, including in human rights issues, allocate a separate budget for the development of relevant policies, etc.), a certain interest of investors and transnational partners; a will to retain employees, reduce staff turnover; staff associations/unions are much more frequent in large companies. However, this also means that big companies must support SMBs in their supply chains in raising human rights awareness, developing human rights policies and implementing due diligence mechanisms. In addition, big business can create complaint mechanisms for their entire supply chain.

Despite many barriers, it is a right time for companies in Kyrgyzstan to start showing interest in business and human rights, to develop their own human rights policies. Firstly, despite the increasing popularity of this topic in the world, it continues to develop actively, there are no frank leaders and frank outsiders. Kyrgyzstan and companies operating in Kyrgyzstan can become an good practice developers of business and human rights topic in Central Asia. Companies that start working with this now will be much more favorably for investors, partners, their employees, customers, and society as a whole.

Corporate policies in the field of human rights: Kyrgyzstan’s status quo

There are only a few examples of human rights corporate policies in the country. As the companies acknowledge, such policies are often developed by copying relevant documents from various manuals or building up on similar experience from other companies. At the same time, companies do not conduct an internal assessment of the impact of their activities on human rights, problematic issues (as company representatives admit) sometimes pop up quite by accident (for example, in one of the companies it “accidentally discovered” that not all employees can read the company’s policies on human rights due to the fact that they are written in Russian, that some of the employees do not speak).

Companies also recognize that the crucial factor in the decision to develop corporate human rights policies is the position of management (sometimes the initiative comes from the management itself, sometimes the initiative group convinces the manager / owner in the need / usefulness of having corporate policies).

At the same time, companies are gradually becoming more interested in developing and implementing their human rights policies. A significant role in this is played by the B + HR Academy, where companies undergo trainings on business and human rights issues and get opportunity for individual consultations with experts on the implementation of corporate respect for human rights, considering the specifics of a particular company. Even the world's leading companies see their identified human rights gaps as growth areas, not failures.

Human rights in supply chains

Companies point out that very few companies can afford to request any information from suppliers, send them questionnaires, insist on the inclusion of human rights clauses in contracts. These are the companies that have influence over their supply chains. In a situation where the company itself needs a particular supplier, it cannot set requirement to disclose information.

In addition, the presence of small and medium-sized companies in supply chains inevitably raises the question of whether they have informal employment. Given the high percentage of informal employment in the country (more than 70%), the likelihood of informal employment is quite high. The question arises as to how the company should react on concealment of such facts or in a situation where such facts are revealed.

A similar situation occurs when it comes to the supply chains of agricultural products or food gathering, where the likelihood of child labor is very high.

It makes sense for companies in Kyrgyzstan to consider these challenges not as barriers to the implementation of responsible business behavior, but to make them the subject of pooling efforts and building cooperation with other companies, human rights organizations, government agencies.

This article is a part of an information campaign to promote human rights issues in the aspect of entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the UNDP project "Business and Human Rights" (B + HR), with the financial support of the Government of Japan. 

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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is one of the leading development organizations in Kyrgyzstan. Since 1993, we have been working in various areas, including inclusive development, environmental protection, crisis response, gender equality promotion, and collaborative efforts towards sustainable development goals.

Media Contact: Nurzhan Alymkanova, Communications Specialist, UNDP Nurzhan.alymkanova@undp.org