Undersecretary Valdivia inaugurates seminar on Human Rights and Business and Responsible Business Behaviour

Today in the O'Higgins Hall of the José Miguel Carrera building the seminar on Human Rights and business and responsible business behaviour began.

The meeting was inaugurated by the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Valdivia. Also with her was the Undersecretary of Human Rights, Lorena Recabarren.

During her speech, Undersecretary Valdivia highlighted that our country, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented last August the first National Action Plan on Human Rights and Business, thus becoming the second country in the region to assume this commitment, after Colombia.

Along with this, she added that "we are currently in charge of coordinating the National Plan, by mandate of the Council of Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development, for which an interministerial committee has been established composed of 9 ministries that have been working since April".

Along these lines, the Undersecretary explained that this plan promotes three principles: the duty of States to protect human rights; the responsibility of companies to respect them; and the duty of both to provide reparation for those cases in which negative effects are generated.

At the end of her presentation, she also highlighted that Chile has promoted the human rights and business agenda at the regional level through three resolutions at the OAS General Assembly, in addition to developing initiatives within the organization to "strengthen the exchange of information and good practices in the development of National Action Plans on business and human rights with countries in the region."