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Description
Economic crisis caused by the pandemic of Covid-19 highlighted the problem of employment insecurity and social security programs for the workers. The crisis revealed the gaps in the existing legal regulations on the government’s responsibility to protect the rights of its citizens, especially in the area of business and entrepreneurship in accordance with the United Nation’s guidelines from 2011. We would like to address this problem by creating a new type of social dialogue allowing for constructive engagement of the citizens in a debate over the current state of affairs, particularly the regulations of the marketplace and business’ role in violations of human rights. We are inspired by the Islandic constitutional process of creating a ”new social contract” and the rebuilding of public trust after the crisis of 2008. That is why we have selected as our partners experts from the University of Iceland, who were directly involved in designing Islandic solutions. Together with organizations that are a part of the CRS Watch Poland Coalition we are working on a report on the implementation of the United Nation’s guidelines, a report on the civic process of creating the new ”social contract” in Iceland, and a document outlining the new model for the civic dialogue. The model, which we have called #deliberateria, will be tested through pilot public consultations in three cities with the citizens, local organizations such as Public Benefit Councils, Seniors Councils, Youth City Councils, and District Market Place Councils. We will model our initiative after the civic panel method to discuss the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights. Finally, we will create an e-publication outlining the framework of our new consultation model.
Summary of project results
United Nations guidelines on private business and human rights clearly designate the responsibility for protecting human rights of the employees onto the businesses that employ them. Unfortunately, our national regulations aimed at protecting the rights of workers and defining proper practices for business are not entirely aligned with the above mentioned guidelines and quite often fail to address current issues. The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed these misalignments and the lack of proper tools for dialogue in search for appropriate solutions.Our answer to the problem was a creation of a new model for civic dialogue we entitled #deliberateria. The model is designed to involve citizens in a debate over issues they deem important and help make decisions following democratic practices. We have tested the model during pilot consultations in three cities: Poznań, Częstochowa, and Przemyśl. During the consultations, individuals involved in work with advisory and assessment bodies tackled difficult questions relating to respecting human rights by businesses and worked on recommendations for the Polish government.These recommendations, as well as results of an online survey (with an estimated reach via informational campaign of 3000,000 individuals) have been included in our guidelines for the 2nd Business and Human Rights National Plan. We have designed those recommendations together with partner organizations from the CSR Watch Polska. We published a report on the status of United Nations guidelines and their implementation efforts in Poland.Our experiences gathered over the course of the project have been collected in our e-publication dedicated to #deliberateria. It’s a one-of-a-kind manual on creating dialogue using this method, addressed to everyone interested in the state of public discourse and its quality in Poland.When starting on the project, we were inspired by the Icelandic constitutional process from 2008. That’s why for our partners we chose experts from the University of Iceland who were directly involved in that work back in 2008. We have organized an international conference where we discussed methods and the importance of deliberative democracy and public dialogue, as well as a seminar on youth participation, addressed to professionals working with young people in Poland, teaching them how to engage the youth, and about different ways of civic participation.
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Summary of bilateral results
The project was carried out in partnership with the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands), with Prof. Salvör Nordal, Ombudsman for Children of Iceland, coordinating one area of the constitutional process from 2009 to 2013, and with Prof. Jón Ólafsson, project leader of the project ''Democratic Constitutional Design: Negotiating Civic Engagement, Institutional Control and the Common Good'', which aims to draw lessons from the Icelandic constitutional process 2009-13 and confront them with theories on democratic participation and civic engagement. Conclusions from the process are included in the Partner''s Report ''The Icelandic Constitutional Process in the Context of Participation and Citizen Involvement''. "The conclusions, good practices and inspirations from this process are included in the Partner''s Report ''Iceland''s Constitutional Process 2010-20'', which was published by PIHRB. The exchange of opinions contributed to capacity building (in social dialogue) of the PIHRB Team''s. This experience was an invaluable contribution to the development of a new model of social dialogue incorporating deliberative elements, which was the basis for further activities undertaken in the project.The partner also actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the international conference "Deliberation - a space for dialogue", during which experiences from pilot consultations in cities and the Icelandic experience were presented. Conclusions from the conference resulted in the recognition of the need to initiate and deepen discussions on youth participation. Thanks to the invaluable experience of the Partner''s experts, it was decided to organize a seminar ''Youth Participation - International and Polish Inspirations'', where Icelandic good practices on children''s participation in the decision-making process were presented.The cooperation with several experts from the Icelandic partner''s team is continued in the project financed under the ACF - Regional in Poland.