A strong government encourages companies to take responsibility for their social, environmental and economic impact – and holds companies to account when violations occur.
The MVO Platform is pleased that the Dutch government has expressed support for the introduction of comprehensive legislation for responsible and sustainable business conduct (RBC). It is extremely positive that the government views this legislation…
The most important international norms for Responsible Business Conduct – the OECD Guidelines and the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) – require companies to perform due diligence in order to proactively identify, prevent and reduce risks…
Updated: 3 June 2019 On the 14th of May 2019, the Dutch Senate voted to adopt the “Child Labour Due Diligence Law” (“Wet Zorgplicht Kinderarbeid”), which requires companies to determine whether child labour occurs in…
Amsterdam, 14 May 2019 Today the Dutch Senate voted to adopt the Child Labour Due Diligence Bill. In doing so, the Netherlands demonstrates that it is serious about combating child labour in global supply chains….
Photo: Xizi Luo, Flickr, CC The UN Sustainable Development Goals…
While the new Dutch Trade and Development policy sets strong trade objectives, it shows little ambition regarding responsible business conduct. Although the Dutch like to see themselves as frontrunners on the issue of responsible business…
New case! Communities in #Nigeria file @OECD Guidelines complaint against @Shell 4 causing adverse impacts to… https://t.co/zmk68UEzuG
Congratulations! Despite many cases of impunity this shows that companies can be held accountable. The next step sh… https://t.co/oagAjySXIr
The article “More Room for Sustainability Initiatives?” by Dario Chiari frames the bill in its political and legal context, it summarises the conflict between competition law and sustainability initiatives in the Netherlands and explains how the bill intends to solve the conflict and its functioning. Lastly, it highlights some shortcomings and possible improvements.
In 2015 a broad coalition, including business associations and NGOs called on the Dutch government to remove the barriers that competition law can create for collaborative sustainability and CSR initiatives.
Since then the Minister of Economic Affairs considered several solutions and came up in 2017 with a quite innovative legislative proposal; the ‘Bill room for sustainability initiatives’. This bill has recently been submitted to public consultation. Further decision-making on the bill will continue once the Netherland has a new government.