GERMANY Law and Practice Contributed by: Jan-Ove Becker and Lukas Heber, Littler
the group of individuals entitled to business- related human rights complaints in the future. According to the CSDDD, member states must ensure that anyone (ie, regardless of whether they are personally affected) can report suspect - ed or actual violations of the provisions of the CSDDD to the competent authority (the BAFA). The formal requirements for complaints are still to be determined, but are unlikely to be particu - larly stringent. It is also important that individuals are still able to appeal against the decisions of the authorities to an independent third party, or to a court. 5. Business and Human Rights in Action 5.1 Best Practices The LkSG has only been in force for a short time. Some of the relevant European directives have also only recently been implemented, or have not yet been implemented at all. Furthermore, there is/are currently no leading case law or judi - cial considerations on BHR in Germany, and little is known about any noteworthy investigations and sanctions imposed by BAFA. At this point, therefore, only limited meaningful best practice recommendations can be made and should be observed, as follows: • to take advantage of government support; various BAFA handouts provide specific guidelines for implementing legal obligations relating to BHR;
• closely monitor current legal developments, particularly at European level; much is chang - ing at present, which is one reason why internal processes should be designed to be flexible and agile; • regularly review implemented measures relat - ing the protection of human rights for effec - tiveness and legal compliance; • train employees in the areas of risk manage - ment, sustainability and the supply chain ( “Awareness in Human Rights” ) it is also essential that members of the management be made aware of the liability consequences, as these are mostly unknown; • integration of AI-supported early-warning risk systems; • use resources from existing compliance systems and control mechanisms and expand them to include human rights-related con - trols; identify possible links/overlaps with other compliance obligations, eg, under the German Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG), and exploit synergy effects (note that there is no one-size-fits-all model with a release from liability; • take human rights-related due diligence obli - gations seriously, especially under the LkSG, as BAFA appears to take its control obliga - tions more seriously than in relation to other laws; in addition, sanctions for violations of the LkSG are significantly stricter than usual; and • cooperate with authorities in the event of any violations, as this can have a positive effect on sanctions.
73
CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook