Analysing community and NGO-led complaints concluded in 2024
This paper sets out the key numbers for civil society complaints concluded in 2024, remedy highlights and lowlights, and OECD Watch’s key recommendations for improving NCP effectiveness.
Positive trends noted in previous State of Remedy papers continued in 2024, with the overwhelmingly majority of National Contact Point (NCP) complaints being accepted by NCPs at the initial assessment stage. NCPs also facilitated three agreements, with an additional agreement reached between the parties outside the formal NCP complaint process.
Some NCPs also continue to use their expertise to make determinations of (non-) compliance with the standards in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (Guidelines), and many NCPs make recommendations in their final statements to companies on improving alignment with the responsible business conduct standards in the Guidelines.
However, OECD Watch remains deeply concerned that these positive developments are limited to a small minority of NCPs. These more effective NCPs support meaningful outcomes for complainants as well as companies by either facilitating agreements and/or making determinations on corporate (non-) compliance with the Guidelines, while the majority of NCPs continue to offer no genuine incentives for either civil society or companies to engage. OECD Watch urges all NCPs to improve their internal procedures and practices to ensure that they at minimum meet civil society’s expectations for well-functioning NCPs.
Moreover, in recent years, OECD Watch has observed an alarming trend of excessively long case durations at certain NCPs. Many of these NCPs lack adequate human and financial resources to efficiently and thereby effectively handle complaints. According to OECD Watch’s NCP evaluations, NCPs are chronically understaffed with fewer than two permanent (non-rotating and not short-term) employees, and most lack a dedicated budget for their activities. It is vital that Adherent governments adequately fund NCPs to carry out their mandate. NCPs not meeting the requirements or civil society’s expectations in the Procedures for NCPs in the Guidelines, including through excessively long case durations, undermine the integrity of the entire NCP complaint system.
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