Companies Urged to Procure Due Diligence Documents

Companies Urged to Procure Due Diligence Documents

Ugo Aliogo
The Principal Manager, Adewale and Adewale Co., Mr. Timothy Adewale, has called on companies and other going concerns to procure due diligence documents as part of efforts to address human rights violation.

Adewale, who stated this in Lagos recently, during a stakeholders’ consultative forum on business and human rights organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said businesses’ failure to respect human rights have led to injuries and serious loss of life.

He also noted that there are a lot of rights violations that are not being addressed in Nigeria, adding that the blame should not be shifted to only business concerns, saying “government also has a duty to protect, while businesses have a duty to respect those rights.”
He hinted that if businesses fail to respect people’s rights, it could lead to the death of such businesses too.

“It is not enough for me to respect human rights, other top actors in the supply chain should respect human rights. If I fail to respect human rights, it flows freely to other actors and persons in the supply chain,” he stated.

Adewale expressed displeasure over government’s implementation of laws against right violations; pointing out that there are some human rights agencies that are moribund, and people are not aware that they are in existence.

According to him, “In developed societies, human rights agencies assist citizens in seeking redress for the infringement of their rights. We have the human rights commission that is trying on its part, but they can do more.

“There are a lot of agencies that is supposed to be protecting human rights, they are not functioning. We don’t have implementation at all.

“Everyone has a role to play to make sure that businesses respect human rights and that is why we are talking about the need for businesses to have due diligence documents. It is not just businesses alone; society, government and judiciary have a part to play.”

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