There is increasing concern about human rights abuses in Africa in which the business sector is implicated. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) under the UN Paris Principles have a mandate to promote and protect human rights, and prevent human rights violations, at national level. The Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) is a membership-based, non-profit organisation that supports and strengthens NHRIs in the African region, and has forty-one NHRIs as its members.

In 2011, NANHRI members gathered in Yaoundé, Cameroon for a Regional Workshop on
Business and Human Rights: the role of African NHRIs. In the Yaoundé Declaration, African
NHRIs affirmed their collective commitment to strengthen their capacity on business and
human rights in line with their Paris Principles mandates. They further sought to address
business-related human rights abuses, highlighting the three fields of labour, environment related and land-related human rights abuses.

In 2012, further to the Yaoundé Action Plan and the NANHRI Strategic Plan 2012-14, the
NANHRI Secretariat commissioned this mapping study of African NHRIs on business and
human rights. Through a combination of desk-research, a questionnaire-based survey and
case studies, the current report, which assesses the current engagement, needs, capacities
and priorities of NANHRI members with regard to the area of business and human rights,
has been produced.