The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is inviting comments on the draft national action plan on business and human rights(mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/N…) for India. Here are my points on this draft keeping in mind the rights of forest-dwelling communities and extractive industries(1/n)
At the outset, the zero draft does not make any leap in increasing the legal standards for due process in land acquisition. It instead lowers it by speaking of community consultation and not consent.
The draft in the extractive industries section makes no mention of the recent mining ordinance and the opening up of the coal mining sector with its impact on forest-dwelling communities.
on aspects of the Forest Rights Act,2006 it does not refer to the requirement of businesses to respect community forest rights and tenurial security but only finds a reference in the process of acquisition of forest land.
Throughout the draft, it's littered with references to the existing domestic legal regime on human rights but seldom makes reference to the challenges in the implementation. It fails to make any reference to the Panchayat Extension of Scheduled Areas Act.
In its section on the access to remedy, it fails to speak about potential internal grievance mechanisms companies can establish or the role of the local bureaucracy in administratively addressing these issues as going to courts is often an expensive and time-consuming affair.
Here is the link to the zero draft of the NAP globalnaps.org/country/india/ click on the blue document for it to download.
Here is a link to the submission I made to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on the draft NAP. arpithakodiveri.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/sub… @journomayank @smithakprasad
