PHM-Exch> IBFAN/Marketing:100 NGOs endorse COI statement. Call for endorsement on comments on "Children's Rights and Business Principles Initiative"

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Patti Rundall <prundall at me.com>


*101 NGOs sign the COI statement*
*Call for endorsement of comments on  "*Children's Rights and Business
Principles Initiative"


Thanks to everyone who signed up to the statement calling for *Clarity on
the role of Industry at the UN* which we created during the 16th June
*Interactive
Hearing for Civil Society* in New York.    We now have 101 endorsers which
you can see on  link *http://info.babymilkaction.org/node/458*   We will  keep
this list open until late  September so do continue to encourage any NGO you
know to think about  signing up - it can be a useful exercise!   Let me know
if you want to know more about the developments and what we are doing on
this issue. *Children's Rights and Business Principles Initiative*
I am now asking you to consider endorsing comments on  another important
development which is closely related
This concerns an Initiative  being devised by the UN Global Compact Office
(GCO) in collaboration with UNICEF and Save the Children - IBFAN's long term
partners.  While we support the idea that the UN should adopt a set of
principles on children’s rights and business, we believe that there
are  fundamental flaws in this idea that could result in the CRBPI  doing
more harm than good.
We will be sending comments to an online consultation which ends on *15th
July.* If you can endorse IBFAN's  comments please send  an email to me at
*prundall at babymilkaction.org* saying so by *14th July* so that we can say
this in our letter to the heads of SCF, UNICEF.

Alternatively or in addition do send your own comments.
You can find our comments here
http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/CRBPIcomment
The consultation and  background documents are here:
http://business-humanrights.org/Documents/CRBPI-consultation

To sum up our  three main arguments:
1.       The CRBPI is being proposed and developed in close collaboration
with the Global Compact Office (GCO) This was  severely criticized in
the evaluation
by the UN's  *Joint Inspection
Unit*<http://www.unjiu.org/data/reports/2010/JIU.REP.2010.9_For%20Printing_17%20January%202011.pdf>
* (JIU)*  in 2010 and found to be  ineffective and lacking accountability
and transparency. The report is well worth reading (1).  IBFAN’s has tried
for over  two years  to use the Global Compact's  'Integrity Measures'  but
has found the GCO  to be worse than ineffective. We fear that the CRBPI will
be used in the same way as a Public Relation cover for the very worst
companies. ****2.       The CRBPI is pre-empting  the forthcoming *General
Comment on Child Rights and Business Sector by the Committee on the Rights
of the Child*, which is expected by 2012. By so doing it is pushing a set of
voluntary measures as the  “unifying framework for existing and future
initiatives”, diverting attention  from the need to regulate business impact
on children’s rights.****3.       Like the Global Compact  the CRBPI
is an incentive-driven initiative with no sanctions for failure to comply
with its core principles and provisions. It focuses on self-assessed
voluntary measures rather than on State Parties’ obligations to regulate the
impact of business on child rights.  Thanks once again  if you can help with
this!
*1 UN Joint Inspection Unit Paper. United Nations corporate partnerships:
The role and functioning of the Global Compact*
www.unjiu.org/data/reports/2010/JIU.REP.2010.9_For%20Printing_17%20January%202011.pdf
*
*
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