In a significant step forward in ending human-rights violations in Egypt’s business sector, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) held a meeting recently on “Leveraging International Practices to Develop a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in Egypt.”
The meeting was part of the NCHR’s push to adopt a National Action Plan (NAP) for business and human rights. Part of the NCHR’s work is to address labour-rights violations, businesses’ environmental responsibility, and social responsibility issues from a human-rights perspective that ensures a comprehensive approach to addressing human-rights challenges in the business sector, Walaa Gad El-Karim, a member of the NCHR and head of its business and human rights portfolio, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
According to Gad El-Karim, the council has identified challenges relating to the work environment in Egypt over the past few years, among them the deaths of female agricultural workers in a road accident some months ago and the death of an infant in a factory where the management had refused to let his mother take him to a doctor last week.
Gad El-Karim described the NAP as a framework intended to organise national efforts to integrate and respect human-rights standards in business, identify existing gaps, and set out measures to be taken to overcome challenges and close gaps within a specific timeframe.
The responsibility and formulation of this plan are shared by the government, regulatory bodies, business owners, public agencies, Parliament, academic institutions, and civil society, Gad El-Karim said. The council is contributing to the preparation of the plan, providing advice and technical assistance and monitoring its implementation.
The NAP is expected to be part of the update to Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy, to be released in September 2026. Gad El-Karim emphasised the need to support victims’ access to justice through a complaints system and noted the sincere proposals put forward by the government in drawing up a comprehensive national plan.
According to Gilbert Sebihogo, director of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), a NAP must address a country’s unique business and human-rights challenges and be grounded in national realities, while exploring linkages with regional frameworks such as the African Union Agenda 2063 and national frameworks such as Egypt’s Vision 2030 development strategy, which recognises the private sector as a central driver of sustainable growth, innovation and job creation.
The NANHRI is the continental umbrella body of human-rights institutions (HRIs) established in African countries. It is composed of 46 member states and has been operating from its Permanent Secretariat in Kenya since 2007.
It contributes to shaping continental policies on business and human rights and took part in the 10th Biennial Conference of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2010.
The outcome document of this conference, the Edinburgh Declaration and Plan of Action, recommended that regional networks of HRIs organise regional workshops to come up with concrete actions to support their members in the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business (UNGPs) and Human Rights, Sebihogo told the Weekly.
He noted that the NANHRI is the first regional network to organise such a regional workshop, which took place in Yaounde, Cameroon, where the Yaounde Declaration and Plan of Action to support the work of HRIs in strengthening their capacity to work on the UNGPs was agreed.
“Since then, the NANHRI has been designing projects to support its members to contribute to the implementation of a ‘Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework’ to ensure responsible business conduct that promotes the human-rights-based approach,” he said.
According to Sebihogo, Egypt’s NCHR has been an active member of the NANHRI and has contributed strategic direction since its inception. The NHCR was the chair of the NANHRI from 2019 to 2021, when it worked to strengthen the human-rights agenda on the continent.
Sebihogo told the Weekly that there is growing global momentum to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, notably through the development of national action plans. These will serve as policy tools to promote responsible business conduct, strengthen governance frameworks, and ensure policy coherence across sectors.
He believes that embedding the UNGPs in national agendas such as on trade and development, technology, and climate change is key. Incorporating Egypt’s priority sectors such as manufacturing, extractives, agricultural, technology, logistics, tourism, construction and real estate is also important.
It is also essential to incorporate the informal sector, which comprises over 60 per cent of Egypt’s workforce, as well as rapidly growing Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMSEs) into the human-rights framework.
Last week’s meeting was part of a series of events that the NCHR will organise in the coming months. According to Gad El-Karim, the NCHR is keen to learn from international practices and successful experiences, and all participating parties, including the NANHRI, the National Council in Morocco, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Denmark, the European Union, and the UN children’s agency UNICEF, have contributions to make in supporting national plans for business and human rights.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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