Two years after the United Nations human rights norms for transnational corporations disintegrated, three important initiatives are working towards getting the debate back on track. Harvard professor John Ruggie is clarifying the legal rules that frame the issue. A group of leading companies is making the case for a common framework on business and human rights; and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, is championing human rights as a business issue within the UN Global Compact.
RUGGIE AND THE RULES
The UN’s special representative for business and human rights, John Ruggie, says his job came about because of the disintegration of the UN norms. “The train wreck resulted from the fact that the business community was almost entirely uniformly opposed to the effort and so were most governments,” Ruggie told an audience at a CSR conference in June.
Appointed in September 2005 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Ruggie’s job is to publish a report in 2007 that:
Identifies and clarifies standards of corporate responsibility regarding human rights.
Identifies best practice (by companies and governments).
Comments on how business and human rights issues should be adjudicated.
Develops ways to assess human rights impacts.
Explores the really tricky areas of ‘complicity’ and ‘spheres of influence’.
Ruggie has engaged widely with businesses, NGOs and governments in an effort to win the support of what had become opposing sides. So far he has won more support from the business community than the NGOs. In his interim report in February 2006 Ruggie stated that governments bear principal responsibility for the vindication of human rights in relation to transnational corporations and other business enterprises. As a result, NGOs are concerned that Ruggie will not recommend tough, legally binding human rights standards for companies, believing that voluntary policies so often highlighted by businesses as a solution often fail to deliver firm action against abuses.
A BUSINESS APPROACH
When the debate over the UN Norms reached boiling point, a group of companies decided to form the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (ABB, Barclays, Gap, HP, MTV Europe, National Grid, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Statoil and The Body Shop came together to find practical solutions to the challenge of managing human rights. While the BLIHR engages with NGOs, governments and businesses, it is driven by business, which ensures that its approach is practical for companies to implement.
Currently, the BLIHR is assessing what a common framework on business and human rights might look like. In June the group published its third report, an excellent contribution that shows that the case for such a framework is strong.
BLIHR framework:
Clarify the role of business in the area of human rights.
Draw out the relevant standards drawn from international human rights law.
Provide processes for applying 1 and 2 in a business context.
ROBINSON AND RIGHTS
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, honorary chair of BLIHR and president of the Ethical Globalization Initiative, recently agreed to join the new board of the UN’s Global Compact. Robinson has committed to championing a working group on human rights within the Compact, which will bring together businesses, NGOs and labour groups to work on a practical level. Once again, it is here at the level of practical guidance that companies have the most to gain.
Ethical Globalization:
acknowledges shared responsibilities for addressing global challenges and affirms that our common humanity doesn’t stop at national borders.
recognises that all individuals are equal in dignity and have the right to certain entitlements, rather than viewing them as objects of benevolence or charity.
embraces the importance of gender and the need for attention to the often different impacts of economic and social policies on women and men.
affirms that a world connected by technology and trade must also be connected by shared values, norms of behavior and systems of accountability.
BEST PRACTICE
BP and security
BP contributed to the establishment of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, created in 2000 by the UK and US governments, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and several extractive industry companies.
The company has incorporated the principles into contractual agreements with host government agencies for the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus pipelines and the Tangguh project.
The security protocol agreed in October 2004 between BP (as operator of BTC) and the government of Georgia formalises and puts into practice international security and human rights undertakings for pipeline security.
The agreement contains provisions on how equipment, facilities and funding supplied by BTC are to be used in accordance with Georgian law and key international documents and norms. It also sets out provisions for related training, reporting and auditing. www.bp.com
Manpower and human trafficking
Employment agency company Manpower, the world’s largest non-governmental employer, is working with NGOs and governments to end human trafficking. Manpower believes there is clearly a role for the private sector, since governments are not doing enough to combat trafficking, NGOs do not have sufficient resources and intergovernmental organisations are constrained by politics.
Manpower has declared a zero-tolerance to human trafficking worldwide and is driving its anti-trafficking programme into 300,000 customer and supplier companies. The company is calling for further regulation of the employment industry, particularly in Asia where rules and implementation are inadequate. Manpower’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, David Arkless, has been appointed special envoy for the end of human trafficking. Arkless is committed to signing up the top 1,000 corporations in the world to the Athens Declaration covering human trafficking by the end of 2007. Manpower was the first signatory in January. www.manpower.com; www.gcwdp.org
Reebok’s human rights foundation
The Reebok Human Rights Foundation’s mission is to support human rights organisations, such as Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. On the national level, the foundation supports organisations devoted to furthering the achievement of social and economic equality, such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Urban League. The foundation also supports the Reebok Human Rights Awards, recognising activists under the age of 30 who have made significant contributions to the field of human rights strictly through non-violent means. Since the awards were established in 1988, more than 60 people have received the award. www.reebok.com
TOP TIPS FOR BUSINESS
Briefing offers some top tips for managers wanting to manage these issues.
Prepare for forthcoming legal clarity on business responsibilities for human rights by checking your own performance. Remember to look outside your own operations – assess risks all the way down your supply chain.
Get up to speed and engage in the discussions on the implementation and adjudication of human rights violations by business – either directly or through business groups like BLIHR and the Global Compact’s local networks.
Recognise best practice – in your sector, your markets and in business. Assess how your company compares.
Look for opportunities to make the new clarity and frameworks on human rights work for your business, including through positive partnerships with NGOs and others on the ground.
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