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The EU’s strategic raw materials diplomacy and partnerships are on the rise, not just since the EU has adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act to secure the supply for its renewable energy, digitalisation, defence, and space industries. Kazakhstan and the EU have initiated a Critical Raw Materials partnership in 2022. The two Kazakhstani transparency experts Mariya Lobacheva and Tatyana Sedova trace how the partneship was set up without properly informing and consulting with the public.

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in Germany aim to strengthen corporate due diligence. Their dialogue formats primarily bring together governmental, economic, and civil society actors based in Germany. They therefore tend to exclude, or only selectively involve, stakeholder groups (rights holders) who are (or may be) adversely affected by corporate activities. This paper illustrates the different dimensions of meaningful rights holder engagement in MSIs and highlights best practices developed by different German MSIs, thus showcasing how MSIs can contribute to due diligence implementation, at least in theory.