The Turks and Caicos Islands Human Rights Commissions Launches Business and Human Rights

#Providenciales, June 27, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – The Turks and Caicos Islands Human Rights Commission has developed a guide for businesses to assist them in meeting their obligations to human rights in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and across the world. Both the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association and the Chamber of Commerce have agreed to partner with the Commission in rolling out this initiative to businesses across the Turks and Caicos Islands. This guide will be accompanied by human rights training and is available to all businesses throughout the TCI.

The growing global acknowledgment on issues such as climate change, diminishing resources, forced labour and human trafficking has triggered a significant change in the attitudes and profit margins of the business community. There have been many aspects of human rights that businesses have assimilated over the past few decades, some in response to domestic law such as pay equality and some in response to their own changing attitudes or the attitudes of their customer base such as fair trade.

Recently more businesses today are partnering with National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) in the creation of human rights policies. These policies are founded on both a strong ethical commitment by the business community and the recognition that a fairer more secure society is a necessary environment for businesses to flourish.

Adopting a human rights policy is a precursor to a company’s human rights due diligence towards meeting its responsibility to respect human rights. It sends a clear signal to internal and external stakeholders that the company is striving to embed human rights into its operational policies and procedures and to understand the human rights impacts of the business, both positive and negative. It also signals a commitment to take respect for human rights seriously, to allocate management time and resources for developing and implementing a human rights policy.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Human Rights Commission will be launching this new initiative at Brayton Hall on Wednesday 3rd of July 2019, members of the public and businesses of all sizes are invited to attend, employees should make a special effort to be there.

This event is free.

The Commission is very pleased to be presenting a variety of speakers at this event including our keynote speaker who currently sits as the Director of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), Dr. David Russell.

Dr. Russell has led the NIHRC Commission’s duty to advise the United Kingdom Government, Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly on matters affecting human rights in the jurisdiction. In addition, he has managed research and the exercising of investigatory powers on a plethora of social policy issues from emergency healthcare to racist hate crimes; the rights of nursing care home residents to addressing the legacy of conflict.

In 2008, he was engaged in drafting the Commission’s advice to the Secretary of State on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. In 2010, he was similarly involved in the work of the Joint Committee of the National Human Rights Institutions on the island of Ireland to produce advice on a proposed Charter of Rights.

It is our hope that all businesses will engage with this new programme which builds upon their commitment to human rights and help to create a fairer and more sustainable society.

Release: TCIHRC