Tougher measures needed for corporations on human rights abuses, says ActionAid
The UN must develop tougher measures for corporations on human rights abuses.
For media interviews contact: Sarah Gillam, ActionAid International Head of Media and Images, Tel: + 44 20 7561 7641, Mobile: + 44 (0) 7738 884014
“A voluntary approach to tackling corporate abuse simply isn’t enough to protect the rights of millions of people,” says Julian Oram, ActionAid policy advisor, prior to the publication of a new report on business and human rights this week.
“The UN must urgently develop global human rights standards for all businesses and effective mechanisms to monitor and enforce them.”
The report on human rights and transnational corporations maps standards currently available to hold businesses to account. It acknowledges that in many cases countries are failing to meet their obligations to protect their citizens from rights abuses by businesses and transnational corporations.
“Professor John Ruggie’s report clearly states that major protection gaps exist for victims of human rights abuses by corporations,” says Aftab Alam Khan, head of ActionAid’s trade campaign.
But Ruggie appears to be advocating a self-regulatory approach favouring voluntary initiatives – such as those emerging in the global mining industries with the certification of non-conflict diamonds – rather than tougher global legislation.
ActionAid has documented a series of corporate abuse cases worldwide:
A Coca-Cola bottling plant undermining local livelihoods and impinging on land and water rights in Plachimada in Kerala in India (2004)
Casual women workers denied basic employment rights on fruit farms in South Africa supplying Tesco supermarket – and paid so little they still go hungry (2005).
AngloGold Ashanti’s gold mining company alleged involvement in land and water pollution and complicity in serious human rights incidents involving local people in Obuasi in Ghana (2006)
A key feature of these cases is that all companies involved have either made voluntary pledges on human rights issues or committed to industry initiatives or codes of conduct.
It is clear from wider analysis that voluntary best-practice initiatives, although useful, have few enforcement mechanisms and are failing to include laggard companies, or capture a wide range of harmful business practices.
“Many of the local communities we work with are crying out for greater corporate accountability and for the protection and promotion of their human rights,” said Oram.
“ActionAid is convinced the only way to address this gap is to raise the bar for all companies across all sectors, not just for those companies who choose to engage just to protect their reputation.”
“ActionAid urges Ruggie and the UN to develop new proposals – together with civil society groups – to set global human rights standards to hold companies to account and establish effective mechanisms to enforce them.”