The occasion marks the 4th Human Rights Institutions' Forum, and was themed "Integrating a protect, Respect and Remedy Approach to Business and Human Rights in Africa, as a Lever towards the Acceleration of Human, Social and Economic Capital Development.
The forum aims at coming up with ways and mechanisms to mitigate business rights violations in the continent.
"NANHRI and our partners are deeply concerned by the growing number of labour, environmental and other forms of business and human rights violations in Africa," a statement signed by Mr Gilbert Sebihogo, NANHRI Executive Director, enumerated.
"Data on complaints lodged at the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)in Africa revealed that gender-based discrimination was the most reported matter at 60% while poor pay and safe working conditions ranked 58% and 45% respectively."
The Data collected on business and human rights covered 2014-2021 while information on sustainable ocean focused on 2016-2022 in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
NANHRI further reiterated that over the years, business human rights have been neglected over many years due to the lack of the political will and unstructured mechanisms.
For business rights to be respected, the Network of rights bodies states: "the continent requires firm and binding legal frameworks for a human-based approach covering all factors of production- land, capital, labour, among others- the extractive, processing and sectors.
