Today, 5 February 2025, in cooperation with Focus, the Association for Sustainable Development, the Human Rights Ombudsman, in its capacity as the national human rights institution, organised a consultation on human rights in business. The purpose of the consultation was to conduct an inter-stakeholder consultation on the transposition of the European Union Directive on Business Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) into Slovenian legislation. “I expect the competent authorities to prepare legislation transparently and in cooperation with the business community and civil society. The legislation must effectively address the protection of human rights and the environment in businesses, as the aim of the directive is to establish a legally binding framework for the implementation of due diligence in businesses throughout the value chain. Respecting and protecting human rights and the environment is no longer just an obligation of the state, but also a responsibility of the business community. In business practices, it is all too often the case that issues of respecting human rights and protecting the environment are ignored. Therefore, it is essential that the state, in accordance with the directive, also improves access to legal protection for victims of these violations,” emphasises Ombudsman Peter Svetina.

The participants of the consultation agreed that a dialogue is necessary to enable the effective implementation of the Directive, including through the establishment of new ways of more effectively enforcing corporate liability, including compliance monitoring and cooperation in enforcement, improving access to justice for civil liability claims, access to information, stakeholder engagement obligations, and whistleblower protection. However, the effective enforcement of these rights requires appropriate transposition into national law.

The Human Rights Ombudsman calls on the government to establish an interdepartmental working group as soon as possible for the comprehensive transposition of the directive into Slovenian law and to include representatives of the economy, civil society, and independent institutions in its work. He once again called on those responsible to take over the coordination of the implementation of the National Action Plan for Respecting Human Rights in the Economy, which is the competent ministry. For almost six years, this area has been led or coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, which, in the Ombudsman's opinion, is not effective enough in this area, since, after all, the area of ​​operation of the Slovenian economy is not at all within the competence of this ministry.