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HUMAN RIGHTS: Holes in UN Text on Corporate Responsibilities

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 30 2003 (IPS) - The oil companies that were shipping fuel aboard the tanker ‘Prestige’, which sank last November off the northwest Spanish coast, are responsible for the consequences of the disaster, including those that involve the local population’s human rights.

But this principle of corporate responsibility does not appear in the text drafted by a United Nations working group on monitoring the conduct of transnationals, says attorney Alejandro Teitelbaum, representative of the American Association of Jurists (AAJ) in Geneva.

But despite this cited shortcoming, the document released this week by the working group of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has the broad support of non-governmental organisations specialising in these matters.

The Sub-Commission text contains non-binding recommendations for transnational corporations’ human rights responsibilities.

In addition to promoting and protecting human rights and ensuring compliance, states should monitor transnationals and other private enterprise to confirm that they are respecting these rights, according to the document.

With this objective, the initiative proposes for the first time in the international arena a system for monitoring and periodic verification of transnationals’ conduct with regards to human rights.

This oversight, according to the draft text, would occur through national or international mechanisms, which must be transparent and independent.

And these mechanisms should accept input from civil society groups, says Antoine Madelin, of France, representing the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues.

Transnational corporations and other commercial enterprises have greatly increased their power in today’s world, and along with greater power comes greater responsibility, said U.S. jurist David Weissbrodt, one of the five members of the Sub-Commission’s working group.

He described some of the violations of international human rights law that have been committed by transnationals, such as hiring child workers, discrimination against certain groups in the labour force, failure to provide safe work environments, crackdowns on union organising efforts, and negligence in protecting consumers and the environment.

Nathalie Mivelaz, of the World Organisation Against Torture, cited additional recent examples of human rights violations committed by transnationals: between May 25 and Jun. 1, the Daewoo Motor Car Factory in Egypt "reportedly pressured 125 workers to resign from their positions by making false accusations against those who objected to do so and threatening them with being fired."

In the end, 112 workers resigned and eight were fired, in a context in which Egyptian labour law "prohibited employers from laying off workers for economic reasons."

Mivelaz underscored that the Daewoo factory in Egypt is a sub-contractor for the South Korea-based Daewoo corporation.

On Jun. 13, police in Cambodia killed a worker from Terratex Knitting and Garment when they opened fire on a peaceful demonstration of factory employees who sought the reinstatement of a union leader who had been fired.

"Terratex is one of 10 largest garment factories in the south of Phnom Penh, most of which are foreign-owned," said the activist.

Without ignoring the role of the police who opened fire on the workers in Phnom Penh, in the two cases "the responsibilities of the subcontractors and the main companies" must be addressed and the parties should be held accountable, she said.

The two examples illustrate the increasingly interdependent nature of the world’s economic systems.

Given this situation, the power of transnationals must be oriented to ensure compliance with basic labour standards worldwide, noted Chip Pitts, of the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Malik Ozden, speaking for the Europe-Third World Centre, criticised the initiative drawn up by the working group, saying it fails to mention solidary responsibility amongst transnationals, their affiliates, subcontractors and suppliers.

The document must also specify the civil and penal responsibilities of the transnationals’ executives, whether they are managers, board members or administrators, said Ozden.

The Sub-Commission, which began its annual period of sessions on Monday, will discuss the draft in the coming days and will decide whether to approve it before wrapping up talks Aug. 15.

The rules included in the text lack a means of enforcement. The Sub-Commission will pass the initiative on to the Commission on Human Rights, the UN’s top authority on this matter.

The next step would be debate on the initiative by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which would then refer it to the UN General Assembly.

In the final phase, on a decision by the General Assembly, the rules may become binding.

Two organisations representing business, the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Organisation of Employers, made it clear to the Sub-Commission’s working group that they favour a voluntary approach to compliance with the human rights rules for transnationals.

Other international accords on this matter, such as a UN global pact and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s guidelines for multinational corporations, are implemented on companies’ own initiative, said representatives of the two groups.

Working group expert Weissbrodt pointed out that the UN pact has only been signed by 1,000 of the world’s estimated 75,000 transnational corporations.