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Rights Groups Hail New UN Guidelines for Business - Globalization - Global Policy Forum Rights Groups Hail New UN Guidelines for Business
By Jim Lobe
OneWorld
August 14, 2003
International human rights groups are hailing the publication by a UN body of a set of guidelines for businesses worldwide to ensure their compliance with international human rights treaties and conventions. To rights activists, the new norms represent a major potential breakthrough in the development and expansion of international human rights, used until now largely to protect individuals and communities from abuses by the state.
"This is the first time that companies, not just states, are being put on notice that they will be expected to meet these basic standards," said David Danzig of the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR), one of 15 international groups that issued a formal statement shortly after the document was released.
The document, "Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises With Regard to Human Rights," could become the basis for an enforceable code of conduct protecting individuals and communities from rights violations by private businesses. The document was formally adopted Wednesday by the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, a group of experts attached to the UN Commission for Human Rights. It will now be considered by the 53-nation Commission. They could also be adopted as binding by individual nation states.
The Norms, reflecting provisions in existing rights treaties and their potential application for businesses, are being published as many multinational corporations have come under pressure to abide by voluntary codes of conduct, such as those promoted by the UN Global Compact or groups like the U.S. Fair Labor Association (FLA), which commits participating U.S. clothing and footwear retailers to ensure that their goods are produced by plants that respect basic labor rights.
But the new document goes further, arguing that all companies should be required to abide by basic human rights principles codified in treaties and conventions. In that respect, they provide the basis for a binding international instrument on corporate responsibility. "Eventually, we'd like to see binding standards for corporations," said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). "But this is a good first step."
The document calls, among other things, for companies to be "subject to periodic monitoring and verification" by the UN or independent agencies, implying a level of enforcement that goes significantly further than the Global Compact. A company's refusal to cooperate with such a monitoring process or a negative report on its performance could cause embarrassment or losses in sales. It also suggests that a Commission working group or group of experts gather information and "take effective action" when a business violate the standards.
The notion that a UN body should be able to sanction non-complying companies in any way has already drawn complaints from business associations, such as the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) that have been monitoring the Sub-Commission's work.
The norms also go further than voluntary codes of conduct by arguing that all private businesses--not just multinational corporations--should be required to respect the guidelines. That innovation, according to Ganesan, should encourage multinational corporations, which have long complained that they suffer a comparative disadvantage from domestic competitors to which voluntary codes of conduct do not apply, to support and promote the effort. "The norms help to level the playing field for companies that want to do the right thing for human rights," said Ganesan. "Now every company's obligations are detailed and no company can say that it doesn't have responsibilities in the area of human rights."
The Sub-Commission stressed that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on which most international rights conventions and treaties are based, applied not only to states and individuals, but also to "organs of society," including businesses. A statement released by 15 major international non-governmental organizations in response to the Draft Norms "welcome[d]" the document and urged their supporters to use it to "spur greater corporate social responsibility."
"No responsible corporation wants to be a party to abusive working conditions or other human rights violations," stated the groups, including LCHR, HRW, Amnesty International, and Christian Aid. "The UN Human Rights Norms and the explanatory Commentary will help businesses know and comply with the relevant human rights laws, and will provide a clear road map to action that transcends the conflicting provisions of various private codes of conduct."
"Although some difficult issues of interpretation will remain, the [Norms] now put the UN imprimatur on much more detailed guidelines as to proper action," they said.
"In an increasingly interdependent world, where poverty, disease, violence, crime, war, regional conflicts, and human rights and environmental abuses persist, clear international standards will help ensure that business will be part of the solution to today's problems and not--knowingly or unknowingly--exacerbate them," said the 15 groups, which include coalitions representing hundreds of local and national affiliates as well.
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