International Processes
Coca-Cola Chairman E. Neville Isdell (left) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at U.N. headquarters March 8, 2006 in New York City. Coca-Cola announced that they would participate in the UN's Global Compact. Mario Tama/Getty Images
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls on "every organ of society" to respect, promote and secure human rights. This lays the foundation for human rights obligations that apply not only to states but also to non-state actors including private businesses.
There are numerous international standards and processes that aim to address the human rights obligations of companies. Amnesty International is a participant in several of these initiatives.
The UN Special Representative on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises
John Ruggie was appointed Special Representative to the UN Secretary General on Business and Human Rights in 2005. His tasks are to identify standards of corporate accountability for businesses; elaborate on the role of states in effectively regulating the role of business, including through international cooperation; research and clarify concepts such as 'complicity' and 'sphere of influence'; develop materials and methodologies for undertaking human rights impact assessments of business activities; and compile a compendium of best practices of states and businesses.
In his first report to the UN Human Rights Council, Professor Ruggie chose to focus on the state duty to protect human rights. Amnesty was disappointed by his second report in 2007, which both failed to take into consideration the perspective of the victims of human rights violations (and the evidence to support those claims) and favoured more voluntary approaches to upholding human rights.
On October 27, 2007, Amnesty joined 239 organizations, socially responsible investment firms, and individuals and signed a joint open letter to Professor Ruggie outlining our views on how he might use the remainder of his mandate to most effectively advance human rights protection in the context of business and human rights.
Read Open Letter to Professor Ruggie and Professor Ruggie's response.
Professor Ruggie is expected to deliver the final report of his mandate to the UN Human Rights Council in the first half of 2008.
The UN Norms
In 2003, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights approved the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (also known as UN Norms). The UN Norms set out a comprehensive list of human rights obligations for companies in a single, succinct document. The UN Norms represent a major step forward in the process of establishing a common global framework for understanding the human rights responsibilities of businesses. Although the UN Norms are not a formal treaty, Amnesty International hopes that they will be used as a basis for moving forward to address the many legal and conceptual challenges that are still unresolved in setting out legally binding human rights standards for business. However, in his role as Special Representative to the Secretary General on Business and Human Rights, Professor Ruggie has scrapped the UN Norms in favour of more voluntary mechanisms. Amnesty International believes that while voluntary standards have an important role to play in the promotion of human rights, they are not an alternative to mandatory global human rights standards on business and human rights.
The Kimberley Process
To many people, diamonds symbolize love, happiness or wealth. However, for many others, they mean conflict, misery and poverty. In some African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, profits from the unregulated diamond trade are used to fund armed conflicts. As a result, tens of thousands of civilians have over the past years been killed or tortured and millions have been displaced from their homes and communities.
At the height of the diamond-fuelled conflicts, UN Resolutions and sanctions galvanized the international community and the industry to act, setting in process moves to isolate trade in conflict diamonds from legitimate trade. That process came to be called the "Kimberley Process".
Amnesty International has welcomed the initiative, but has pointed out that several governments do not appear to appreciate the urgency of the situation and have not introduced relevant legislation so that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme can be effective. The system so far has not included provisions for monitoring to ensure that actions taken by government and industry work in practice and are not open to abuse. Amnesty International therefore, along with other organizations, has been calling upon all governments for regular independent monitoring of all national control systems.
In late 2006, a three-year review of the Kimberley Process began. To receive a copy of Amnesty International's updated three-year review of the Kimberly Process and our recommendations, email us:
bhr@amnesty.ca.
UN Global Compact
Launched by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2000, the Global Compact is a voluntary initiative that aims to advance ten universal principles. Two of the principles specifically address human rights:
- Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
- Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Unfortunately, relatively few Canadian companies have joined the Global Compact. Amnesty International encourages Canadian companies to join the 2500+ companies world wide in participating in the Global Compact.
Because the Global Compact is voluntary and its principles are vague, we would also like to see the UN adopt comprehensive norms for companies that are grounded in international law, along the lines of the draft UN Norms (see above).
To read Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan's speech to the UN Global Compact Summit on July 5, 2007, please click here.
Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights
The Voluntary Principles are a set of standards that guide companies in maintaining the safety and security of their operations within a framework that ensures respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They lay out the criteria that companies should follow in evaluating the risks of complicity in human rights abuses with regard to their security arrangements, and they guide relationships between companies and both public and private security forces in order to reduce the risk of human rights abuses and promote respect for human rights within their security operations.
Amnesty International has been a participant in the Voluntary Principles process since its inception in 2000, but over the last five years, Amnesty International has consistently advocated for a more credible process. To this end, it has demanded that the principles be made more rigorous, by working towards the establishment of a reliable reporting mechanism.
In 2005, Amnesty International published the report : Nigeria: Ten years on: Injustice and Violence Haunt the Oil Delta. In this report, Amnesty scrutinizes the conduct of Chevron and Shell, both participant companies in the Voluntary Principles process, in light of violent incidents in early 2005 in the Niger Delta. The report raises questions regarding the efficacy of the Voluntary Principles. Despite the fact that both Shell and Chevron have subscribed to the Voluntary Principles, both incidents involved human rights abuses by security forces which the Voluntary Principles failed to prevent. As a consequence, Amnesty International has raised concerns with the companies regarding their real efforts to implement the Voluntary Principles in their operations.
Updated: 18 December 2007