On 7-8 February, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated an Environment Human Rights Due Diligence (EHRDD) training session with the Foundation for International Human Rights Reporting Standards (FIHRRST) for companies operating in/related to the Citarum river in Bandung, West Java.

This program is funded by the EU to strengthen responsible business practices by promoting EHRDD. Indonesia's initiative in responsible business behavior is also demonstrated through President Joko Widodo's Citarum Harum program, which was launched in 2018.

To welcome all the participants, opening remarks were given by Syamsul Tarigan, Senior Technical Advisor cum Programme Manager, UNDP Indonesia; Dr.M. Saleh Nugrahadi, Assistant Deputy for Watershed Management and Natural Resources Conservation; and Mayjen TNI (Purn) Dedi Kusnadi Thamim, Chairman of Citarum Harum.

Before the training started, there was an Introduction Session given by Sagita Adesywi who gave a review of current or future mandatory norms impacting the implementation of HRDD in Indonesia. A second Introduction Session was given by Sofia Alatas from kemenkumham mentioning PRISMA. In the third Introduction Session, BUMI shared their experience with HRDD. The final Introduction Session was presented by Lusiana Julia from the International Labour Organization (ILO) who explained the Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in a Responsible Supply Chain.

The first training session featured Mohamad Mova AlAfghani, a UNDP Consultant, who spoke on the findings of the risk mapping study on Citarum River area industries. The EHRDD training was started with an Introduction to Business and Human Rights (BHR) and UNGPs. In the second Training Session, FIHRRST’s Operations Director, Ali Rahmadi introduced the participants to BHR as well as UNGPs.

On the second day, there were two sessions of EHRDD Training, followed by group breakout sessions to review case studies and view presentations from Citarum area companies. The third training session was on Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) as explained by Ali Rahmadi, our Operations Director and Ratih Ananda Putri, our Business and Human Rights Specialist.

The final training session was about the Connection between Remediation Mechanisms and HRDD. To close the training, there was a group breakout session for the companies to analyze and present the case studies.

Participants were very proactive and extremely enthusiastic to learn about human rights in business.