By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30 2000 (IPS)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has called for a vibrant partnership between the private sector and the world body, also wants big business to be held accountable for their environmental sins.

Annan says that most multinational corporations have made money polluting the world and polluting the environment. “They make lots of money and lots of goods, but they can also pollute rivers where they kill fish,” he says.

Every corporation, he says, must be made to pay the environmental costs of production. The international community, he points out, should introduce the concept of “green accounting … And if we do that, companies would become more responsible.”

But Annan is also convinced that big corporations will probably make even more money cleaning up the mess they have themselves created. “We should therefore challenge them to work with us,” Annan says.

The Secretary-General also warns that “if we continue exploiting the earth’s resources the way we are doing now, we will not be able to leave a healthy world for our children.”

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the US-based Stanford University last week, Annan told a group of young students that they have a responsibility to be vigilant. Describing them as future “corporate leaders”, he told the students that they have to be very sensitive to the environmental destruction that is taking place around them.

In its latest annual report titled “Human Rights and Human Development” released Thursday, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) says that society no longer accepts the view that the conduct of global corporations is bound only by the laws of the country they operate in.

By virtue of their global influence and power, they must accept responsibility and be accountable for upholding high human rights standards – respecting rights of workers, protecting the environment, refraining from supporting or condoning regimes that abuse human rights.

The study also points out that global corporations can cause human rights violations indirectly by relying on repressive regimes to create secure business conditions. But they can also be agents of positive change for human rights – they have a track record of policy lobbying on economic issues.

To resist human rights violations by Shell Oil in 1990, the report says that the Ogoni people of Nigeria formed the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People, a peaceful movement led by activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Although Shell Oil suspended its activities in Ogoniland in 1993, it continued to pump more than 250,000 barrels of oil a day in Nigeria, nearly 12 percent of its international output.

But in the wake of Saro-Wiwa’s execution by the Nigerian government in 1994, many NGOs and fair trade organisations started campaigning against Shell. The damage to the company’s public image and profits compelled it to publicly admit its errors and adopt a human rights code, according to UNDP.

Addressing a forum of NGOs in Geneva Sunday, Annan said that civil society is much more than a collection of NGOs, although they are a very important part of it. Civil society, he said, also includes universities, private foundations, labour unions and also private corporations.

“Private corporations produce most of the wealth in the world. If only for that reason, we would be foolish to ignore them,” he said.

“We would be foolish not to seek to engage them in a search for something beyond short-term profit – the search for a better, more equitable world in which everyone has the chance to participate in the global market, as both consumer and producer,” he noted.

On their side, he pointed out, “many corporations now recognise that they have something to learn from us, as well as we from them. We all have to learn from each other, and it is only through dialogue that we can bring about change.”

Last year, Annan challenged world business leaders to re-design their corporate practices and policies in tune with basic principles of human rights, international labour laws and environmental guidelines laid out by the world body.

He wanted leaders of global business, and the United Nations to jointly initiate a global compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market.

“We have shown through co-operative ventures – both at the policy level and on the ground – that the goals of the United Nations and those of the business community can be mutually supportive,” he said.

Annan’s offer came at a time when some of the world’s major transnational corporations stood accused of either degrading the global environment or working in collusion with governments accused of violating human rights and international labour laws.

A UN meeting of business leaders last year included several participants from the corporate sector, including BAT Industries, Bata, Coca Cola, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s Worldwide, Rio Tinto, Unilever and US West.

Annan urged business leaders to protect freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. “We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face,” he said.

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