Seminar Attempts to Paint Businesses as the New Ambassadors for Human Rights
ECONOMICS, CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIETY & CULTURE
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Corporations should use their limited resources to promote human rights, says Renate Hornung-Draus, the Managing Director of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations. Mr. Hornung-Draus was one of about fifty experts, NGO representatives, government officials and members of the corporate community to speak at the International Seminar for Business and Human Rights on “Global Challenges of our Time.” The Seminar was held in Paris on December 4-5, in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to many of the presenters, companies should not shy away from operating in countries whose national laws do not promote the protection of human rights. Instead, though human rights continues to be the recognized responsibility of governments, transnational corporations and other business enterprises should welcome the opportunity to pick up the slack where governments are lacking. Indeed, according Mike Posner, President of Human Rights First, in the absence of state direction, it is the responsibility of corporations to take a leadership role in the promotion and protection of human rights.
This means that the scope corporate due diligence in respect to human rights can change depending on the country situations in which businesses operate, says Guy Ryder, Secretary General for the International Trade Union Confederation. If a host country’s laws are in line with international human rights standards, then corporations need only abide by these laws in order to avoid complicity in human rights abuses. If, however, the host country has “gaps” in its human rights legislation, companies operating here will have to take the initiative to make positive steps to ensure that their activities meet international human rights standards. In this way, corporations can essentially become “ambassadors” for human rights by bringing higher standards into countries whose national human rights regulations are lacking.
If corporations are to be viewed as the ultimate promoters of human rights and held to even higher standards than those of states, many of the seminar participants felt that the business community needs to be held accountable as such. In fact, in the face of several compelling case studies where corporations had actively promoted human rights in their spheres of influence, some NGO participants demanded a regime of mandatory corporate compliance with human rights standards that apply only to nation-states. Many of the speakers, therefore, called for the creation of binding corporate human rights standards. The voluntary initiatives that currently exist were not seen as sufficient, as they give the impression that companies can pick and choose the standards they wish to apply to their operations. Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, suggested that current corporate human rights guiding documents - such as John Ruggie’s “Framework for Business and Human Rights” - be turned into binding documents in order to make up for gaps in national human rights law.
Refreshingly, in the midst of these disturbing calls for greater corporate responsibility in regards to the protection of human rights, John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, brought balance to the debate. Ruggie stated that the only standards to which corporations could be required to adhere are those of not violating human rights. While companies can be encouraged to go farther by actively promoting human rights, they should not be required to do what is ultimately the responsibility of states. Further, in contrast to many of the other presenters, Ruggie argued that international human rights law may not be the best means of holding companies responsible for their limited duty to respect human rights. Instead, national corporate and securities law should be used to ensure corporations are respecting the rights of those that live within the communities in which they operate.
Jim Kelly is the President of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public interest civil and human rights law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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