The Ministry of Justice, through the Human Rights Directorate, organized a workshop to consolidate and validate the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. This process, launched in 2023, aims to provide Senegal with a strategic framework consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles adopted in 2011.

Julien Ngane Ndour, Magistrate and Director of Human Rights, recalled that this plan is based on a participatory and inclusive approach, involving businesses, civil society, unions, local authorities, and technical and financial partners such as UNDP, UNICEF, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Consultations conducted in Thiès, Saint-Louis, Kédougou, and Fatick highlighted major challenges: environmental issues, land conflicts linked to agribusiness, labor law violations, and sexual rights violations in mining areas.

"On the environmental issue, there was a lack of a truly specific policy that would allow or require companies, when they set up somewhere, to respect all the rights related to environmental issues. Towards the Saint-Louis region, there is the issue of agribusiness, land, and in the Fatick region, there are environmental issues with marine advancement. In the Kédougou region, where gold is mined, there were issues related to sexual violations. There is an issue related to labor rights violations, etc. Overall, we were able to identify the problems that, today, have allowed the consultants to come up with a set of strategic axes that will allow the government, at least in the years to come, to know where to put its finger to have a real policy that would allow the authorities to ensure that rights are respected by companies," says Mr. Ndour.

For Jacques Boyer, UNICEF representative in Senegal, this plan must pay particular attention to children, "a vulnerable segment of the population," while integrating the role of businesses in protecting their rights.

Robert Kochani of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed the "positive and effective" response to a recommendation of the Universal Periodic Review, while stressing the urgency of operationalizing the National Human Rights Commission.

For his part, Ibrahima Amadou Niang, head of the governance unit at UNDP, highlighted the "collective and dynamic" nature of the process, which is expected to evolve periodically and result in concrete actions.

The National Assembly, through the voice of Mr. Abdoulaye Tall, President of the Law Commission, reaffirmed its commitment to adopting the necessary texts to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights.

This National Action Plan constitutes a major step in the domestication of the United Nations Guiding Principles and paves the way for sustainable economic governance that respects human rights, in line with Vision Senegal 2050.