Group urges international community to address human rights abuses by corporations
CIVICUS, World Alliance of Citizen Participation, urged the international community to act seriously on human rights abuses by certain trans-national corporations.
This was contained in the final report by Professor John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Issues of Human Rights and Trans-National Corporations and other Business Enterprises, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
A statement signed in Accra said, “In an increasingly globalised and interlinked world we believe that there is a real necessity for UN member states to standardize practices in relation to business compliance with human rights through the adoption of a universally binding framework”.
It said they remained deeply anxious about the activities of trans-national corporations and other business enterprises resulting in human rights abuses, including the right to a clean and healthy environment; access to land and natural resources and adequate and decent standards of work.
The statement noted that CIVICUS had referred to the “failure” of state-owned business to uphold human rights standards when operating outside their state jurisdictions.
According to CIVICUS Policy Manager, Mandeep Tiwana, Professor Ruggies’ Report “fails to articulate the duty of states to regulate the overseas activities of businesses domiciled within their own jurisdiction, in accordance with the position taken by the UN Committee on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights.”
“We are concerned about the role played by certain corporations in propping up or supporting undemocratic governments as we all as state actors who fail to respect the international human rights framework,” it added, calling on UN member states to consider the issue in “right earnest” and enforce a human rights approach to business practices.
The report has also called for an end to the “deafening silence” concerning the role of civil society in driving human rights accountability in businesses.
It noted that Trade unions, non-government organisations, charities, community foundations, religious bodies and social movements remain pivotal players in challenging the established impunity of rogue corporations” and holding them to account.
The statement said they considered the report to be a first step toward strengthening the relationship between business practices and universal human rights, but it could be much more and needed to be much more than a compilation of ideals for selective information and application by states.
Source: GNA