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.