PHA-Exch> Food for a failing voluntary thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 191 [No.2 of 3 in a short series on non-actors in the
human rights arena].



*CORPORATIONS NEED CLEAR, BINDING HUMAN RIGHTS RULES.*



1. On human rights (HR), governments and civil society must consistently
hold corporations to account. When it comes to HR, neither
flashy-management-slogans nor corporate nitpicking over HR terms and
principles are even near good enough *. If civil society does not promptly
and decisively act to make corporations respect overall HR, development (and
*environmental) matters, the future will indeed be bleak.*

(*): Corporations are quick to mention international HR covenants, but often
fail to mention the concrete duties contained in them.



2. Corporations simply cannot themselves self-righteously determine what is
acceptable and legitimate --and much less what is 'responsible' corporate
management. That is up to society as a whole to judge…which is why much
attention is being paid to the discourse on the social *and* societal
responsibilities corporations should live-up to.



3. As we saw in the previous Reader, corporate social responsibility (CSR)
is a vague term. Different corporations associate all kinds of things with
it; with their different vested interests, they adopt definitions of CSR
that basically best suit them. Moreover, the emphasis is on 'voluntary'
enforcement…and without binding-HR-duties, social responsibility remains a
very moot concept.* *



4. In HR work, we prefer to speak of '*corporate accountability*' rather
than of corporate social responsibility, i.e., companies having to fulfill
HR duties as defined by law, as enforced by the state and as monitored by
civil society.



5. Through those laws, corporations must be held accountable for a number of
things. They have to: not market harmful products, not manipulate consumers
through advertising, not promote superfluous consumption, not lobby against
any interests opposite to society overall, promote sustainable patterns of
consumption and of production, uphold labor standards, and pay *all their
taxes *. *

(*): We remind you of the devastating effect that low tax rates and the
proliferation of loopholes in tax systems have had on public budgets. No
doubt, there needs to be active opposition to powerful corporate lobbies
abusing/dodging poor (and rich) countries' tax laws. There must be: stricter
obligations for companies to report their income, fair taxation of the same
to the benefit of society; and effective national and international
enforceable sanctions and liabilities for companies that evade taxes.



6. Corporations like to tell us that CSR benefits the people of poor
countries --as if profit interests suddenly went hand-in-hand with HR and
environmental protection. In reality, CSR often flies in the face of those
goals. Experience with the implementation of voluntary-codes-of-conduct
shows that this approach does not suffice; at best, it has led to some
isolated temporary improvements especially when independent audits are
conducted and breaches of conduct sanctioned. Nonetheless, no systemic
improvements can be reported in this context. For these voluntary codes to
have a chance to work, the locally affected people and their organizations
would have to be involved --but they are not.



7. A focus on HR from a merely technocratic management-based approach,
devoid of a grassroots political input, does not deliver what it promises.
The question is no longer: How can a voluntary-code-of-conduct be
effectively enforced? Instead, concerned people need to unambiguously know
how they will be involved in improving these codes to make them work for the
environment and to improve overall living conditions and people's
livelihoods. This hardly happens even in the case of CSR campaigns that look
good at first glance. So we are left with the questions: How can pressure be
put on powerful corporate players open to voluntary codes? How can they be
made to truly respect HR principles?



8. Bottom line, it is high time to do away with the illusion that markets
will take care of everything best, if simply left alone. Politicians and
society at large must impose clear and binding HR (and other) duties on
corporations. If we are not willing to stand for what is right --and shy
from boycotting companies whose business practices and products harm
society-- then we cannot expect to move beyond the current state of affairs.




Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

cschuftan at phmovement.org

[All Readers can be found in www.humaninfo.org/aviva  under
No.69<http://www.humaninfo.org/aviva%20%20under%20No.69>
]

_________________________________

Adapted from Fuchs, P. and Plank, L., Corporate Watch 2006, Ethical Trade
Initiatives 2006, D+C, 34:4, April, 2007.
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