Ruggie report falls short of expectations

Today, John Ruggie, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for business and human rights, is to present his Protect, Respect and Remedy: a Framework for Business and Human Rights report to the UN Human Rights Council. John Ruggies report identifies grave deficits in the current human rights regime that represent an obstacle to protection to individuals and communities against corporate-related human rights violations. He notes “escalating charges of corporate-related human rights abuses”, regarding this as “the canary in the coal mine, signalling that all is not well”. The Ruggie Report regards the governance gaps created by globalization as the root causes of the “business and human rights predicament. These governance gaps provide the permissive environment for wrongful acts by companies of all kind without adequate sanctioning and reparation”. Ruggie sees the fundamental challenge as identifying “how to narrow and ultimately bridge the gaps in relation to human rights”.

Nevertheless, according to a background paper written by Jens Martens of Global Policy Forum, the Report does not respond to the global governance gaps it notes with global governance solutions. Instead, it is limited to what its author deems politically achievable. This above all includes incremental steps towards observing human rights at national level, especially in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and in export promoting via Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Ruggie is in favour of strengthening judicial capacities to hear complaints and enforce remedies against corporations. He recommends the corporations themselves to observe due diligence regarding respect for human rights and gives some practical recommendations in this context.

However, Ruggie categorically rejects the UN Norms or any other global legal instrument to establish the human rights duties of corporations. Neither does the report address calls by human rights organisations for a UN special procedure (e.g., independent expert or group of experts) on business and human rights or a proposed International Advisory Centre offering governments of developing countries legal support vis-à-vis transnational corporations. Thus Ruggies report, Martens concludes, falls way short of the expectations of civil society organisations. With his principled pragmatism approach, Ruggie formulates what he feels is politically feasible given the forces that be in society but does not state what would be desirable and necessary to protect human rights.

PWYP: Companies must go beyond their rhetoric

In the wake of a recent report published by Transparency International, showing that leading oil and gas companies should be doing more to fight corruption and poverty in resource-rich countries, Publish What You Pay calls on companies to publicly disclose how much money they pay to governments for the right to extract. “The report’s key findings and recommendations reaffirm longstanding demands by PWYP for greater transparency of revenue flows earned by resource-rich governments from extractive industries. Without this information, citizens cannot track how the revenues are being reinvested back in the country,” said Radhika Sarin, International Coordinator of PWYP.

In the 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies, TI, a key member of the PWYP coalition, evaluates how 42 international and national oil and gas companies publicly report their operations in a total of 21 countries. Of those companies, only a third are categorised in the findings as ‘high’ performers and only a selected group report on a country-by-country basis, a reporting format identified as best practice. “The fact that leading oil and gas companies can retain competitive advantage while still reporting their operations on a country-by-country basis sets a standard for others to follow. It's time for companies to go beyond their rhetoric and start disclosing payments in the disaggregated format that citizens want," said Sarin.

The report recommends that:
* Companies should proactively publish what they pay to governments on a country-by-country basis;
* Governments, stock exchanges and regulatory agencies should urgently consider mandatory reporting for companies operating in-country and abroad;
* Governments from oil and gas producing countries should introduce legislation mandating revenue transparency by all companies operating in their territories;
* Regulatory agencies and companies should agree to publish information in a uniform and accessible format.

The recommendations show that encouraging companies to report their revenues transparently is not the only mechanism to achieving the overall goal of responsible government spending. Governments in both resource-rich countries and those who are home to oil and gas companies, in addition to regulatory agencies should introduce legislation mandating revenue transparency by all companies. “This report is an invaluable advocacy tool. PWYP coalitions around the world will be using the findings to challenge companies, governments and regulatory authorities over their responsibility to reduce corruption and in turn poverty,” said Ingilab Ahmadov, Director of the Public Finance Monitoring Center in Azerbaijan.

Indian government supports employer in cover-up of worker rights abuses

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has criticised attempts by the Indian government and the Bangalooru Court to cover up serious labour rights violations by the Fibre & Fabrics International company (FFI) and its subsidiary Jeans Knits Pvt. Ltd in the Indian city. Local labour rights groups, supported by the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) initially exposed the violations in 2005. Following this the company, which supplies jeans to Dutch company G-Star and other international brands, took legal action in 2006 in the Bangalooru Court to ban the local groups, CCC and ICN from speaking about or publicising the violations. Our photo shows activists protesting outside G-Star.

The CCC subsequently took the issue up with under the procedures of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, stressing that under the gagging order, local trade unions cannot operate freely, and that companies doing business with FFI cannot implement any credible form of corporate social responsibility programme. The company filed a court case against the CCC, ICN, internet provider Antenna and adsl supplier Xs4ALL, alleging that they engaged in cyber crime, defamation, racism and xenophobia. Refusing to accept that they are represented by a lawyer rather than travelling to India to appear in person, the Court issued summonses against the four organisations and seven individuals. A November 20 Court hearing is expected to determine whether the court will seek to issue international arrest warrants against the worker rights advocates.

The initial report put forward by the CCC and ICN on the company based on interviews with workers from various parts of the company’s operations, revealed physical and verbal abuse of the workforce, hazardous working conditions, lack of proper employment contracts, long working hours and non-payment of overtime entitlements. CCC and ICN did acknowledge that some improvements had been made by the company management after the release of the report, but that serious problems continued to exist. They called on the company to take part in a process of dialogue with the local trade union GATWU and independent mediators, however the company continued its court action instead.

“All these people have done is to try to tell the truth about severe exploitation of the FFI workers,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. “Instead of supporting the employer’s use of the local Court to threaten labour rights supporters with criminal proceedings which carry penalties of up to two years in prison, the Indian government should be defending the rights of its own people and not leaving them at the mercy of unscrupulous bosses”, he added. The ITUC understand that the attack on CCC and ICN has now been taken up with the Dutch and other European governments and the European Commission by the Indian Trade and Commerce Ministry, which has claimed that the publicity around this and similar cases is a “non-tariff barrier” to trade. In past years, India has consistently refused to allow any discussion at the WTO of violations of labour standards.

UN expert urges German company Lahmeyer and others to halt work on dam project in Sudan

On 27 August 2007, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari, issued the following statement:

"I am deeply concerned by the situation of the communities affected by the hydro-electric projects in the Merowe and Kajbar areas in the northern Nile valley in Sudan which has continued to worsen during the past two years.

I continue to receive disturbing reports that large-scale forced evictions may be imminent in the Merowe area. The reports indicate that rising water levels of the Merowe reservoir have destroyed dozens of houses in the past weeks and may destroy many more, forcing residents out of their homes. The affected people have claimed that they received no warning that water levels would be raised and that no assistance from Government authorities has been forthcoming since their houses were destroyed. Last year, thousands of people in the Merowe area were relocated in similar circumstances which temporarily left them without food or shelter, and some remain homeless.

While I am still in the process of assessing the development motives behind the projects, these cannot, according to international human rights instruments, under any circumstances, be planned and implemented without effective involvement of the affected populations and at the expense of the human rights of more than 60.000 people, including women, children and the elderly. In the present circumstances, moving forward with the projects given the opposition by the communities would lead to large-scale forced evictions and further violence. As recognized by the international community, forced evictions violate a wide range of human rights and large-scale evictions can only be carried out under exceptional circumstances and in full accordance with international human rights standards.

Moreover, as opposition by the communities to the dams has grown, I have received numerous reports of violations of civil and political rights due to the government's response to community protests. These have included the shooting of unarmed demonstrators, arbitrary arrests of activists, and repressive measures against the press when journalists have attempted to cover the events.

As previously communicated to the Government of Sudan (1), I strongly urge the authorities to fully comply with international human rights standards, and to consider the use of instruments and guidelines that have been developed to minimize the impact of these kinds of projects on the human rights of the populations, such as the "Basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement"

(2). I call upon all States that have invested in the Merowe and Kajbar dams, in particular China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, the Sultanate of Oman and the League of Arab States (through the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development), to ensure that the implementation of the projects does not lead to violations of human rights including the right to adequate housing of the affected communities.

I urge the companies involved in the projects, such as Harbin (China), Lahmeyer International (Germany), and Alstom (France) to put a halt to their activities until a full and impartial assessment of the impact on the human rights of the population is made. In this regard, I also strongly encourage that States, in particular China, Germany and France, ensure that the work of their national companies does not -directly or indirectly - negatively impact the human rights of the affected people.

As an immediate step, in view of the reported rise in the water level and the possible flooding in the Merowe area, I urge the Government to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and adequate housing of persons living in the area. I also urge the Government of Sudan to facilitate swift access for UN human rights monitors to conduct an independent eviction-impact assessment mission. Until the results of such impact assessment are made available, I call upon the Government to suspend the hydro-electric dam projects in Merowe and Kajbar."

Notes

(1) See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Summary of communications sent and replies received from Governments and other actors, A/HRC/4/18/Add.1

(2) The "Basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement" are included as Annex I to the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, A/HRC/4/18