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RIGHTS: Groups Praise New UN Guidelines for Business

Jim Lobe

Washington, Aug 14 2003 (IPS) - Human rights groups are hailing the publication of a set of guidelines for businesses worldwide to follow to ensure their compliance with global human rights treaties and conventions.

The United Nations document, ‘Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights’, could become the basis of an enforceable code of conduct that will protect individuals and communities from rights violations by private businesses.

It was formally adopted Wednesday by the U.N. Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, a group of experts attached to the U.N. Commission for Human Rights. It will now be considered by the 53-nation commission and could eventually be adopted as binding by individual nation states.

To rights activists, thenNorms represent a major potential breakthrough in the development and expansion of international human rights, which have generally been used 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 groups that issued a formal statement after the document was released.

The norms, a distillation of provisions in existing rights treaties and standards as they should be applied to 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 U.N. Global Compact or groups like the U.S. Fair Labour Association (FLA), which commits participating U.S. clothing and footwear retailers to ensure their goods are produced by plants that respect basic labour rights.

But the new document goes further, by 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 programme at New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). "But this is a good first step."

Among other things, the document calls for companies to be "subject to periodic monitoring and verification" by the United Nations or independent agencies, which implies a level of enforcement that goes significantly further than the Global Compact. Refusal to cooperate with such a process or a negative report on its performance could cause embarrass a company or lead to losses in sales.

The norms also suggests that a commission working group or group of experts gather information and "take effective action" when business violate the standards.

But the norms have been criticised. For example, they fail to mention how responsibility for violations would be apportioned among transnationals, their affiliates, subcontractors and suppliers, Malik Ozden, speaking for the Europe-Third World Centre, told IPS in July.

Also, the document should specify the civil and penal responsibilities of transnationals’ executives, whether they are managers, board members or administrators, added Ozden.

The notion that a U.N. 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).

The norms also go further than voluntary codes of conduct by arguing that all private businesses – and not just multinational corporations – should be required to respect the guidelines.

That innovation, according to Ganesan, should encourage multinational businesses, 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 are based, applies not only to states and individuals, but also to "organs of society", including businesses.

A statement released by 15 major international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) 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," said the groups, which included LCHR, HRW, Amnesty International, and Christian Aid.

"The U.N. human rights norms … 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."

"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 included coalitions representing hundreds of local and national affiliates.