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ABOUT THIS GUIDANCE This publication is intended to orient States to the need and benefits of engaging human rights defenders in the process of developing a NAP on business and human rights. It also aims to provide guidance to ensure that the content of a NAP effectively contributes to a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders. This document consists of three main sections: Human Rights Defenders in the Business and Human Rights Context This section de8ines who is a human rights defender; describes the role of defenders in the context of business and human rights; and presents the practical, legal, moral, and business case for including human rights defenders in NAPs. Human Rights Defenders in NAP Processes This section underlines the importance of engaging with human rights defenders in the process of developing a NAP, and provides a checklist of thirteen minimum elements necessary to ensure that States consult and engage human rights defenders in doing so. Human Rights Defenders National Baseline Assessment (NBA) Template This section provides a template of the minimum questions a State should ask in carrying out a National Baseline Assessment (NBA) and evaluating the current environment in which human rights defenders work on issues of business and human rights. Responses to these questions are intended to provoke commitments to changes in legislation, policy, and actions to address any gaps identi8ied. This guidance does not seek to present an in-­‐depth analysis of the problems facing defenders working on business human rights; ample evidence of this can be found in existing UN and NGO literature. Rather, the guidance seeks to provide, through the NAP checklist and the NBA template, a set of practical tools through which States, in conjunction with civil society and other relevant actors, can explore specific challenges in relation to defender protection and support. Thus, States can analyse existing policy responses and propose new laws, policies, and practices that respond to these problems effectively. None of the NAPs developed to date have proposed significant changes in law or policy, tending instead to simply summarise existing practice. In working closely with human rights defenders, States can be innovative and show real leadership on this issue. There is also a good business case for including defenders in NAPs. Many features of a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders are strongly associated with an enabling operating environment for business, with businesses and defenders alike thriving in contexts characterised by transparency, respect for the rule of law, freedom of expression and association, and non-­‐discrimination.9 2