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CSRwire Weekly News Alert
6.17.2008 - 11:59pm ET
The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - Ruggie Pushes Corporate Human Rights Improvement, Harkin-Engel Pushes End to Child Labor in Cocoa
Earlier this month, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on
Human Rights and Business John Ruggie presented his third
report to the Human Rights Council. In a significant development, the
report sets forth a framework for states protecting against human rights
abuses, companies respecting human rights, and victims accessing remedies.
It also praises best practice, such as mandated sustainability reporting
in South Africa and most recently Sweden, as well as spotlighting gaps,
such as a lack of coordinated grievance mechanisms for voluntary
initiatives such as the Equator Principles covering financiers of resource
extraction projects and the like.
Perhaps more significant are the responses to the report coming from all
quarters, including business, investors, and activists. The International Council on
Mining and Metals (ICMM) welcomed the report, particularly for
outlining six inter-related attributes (legitimate; accessible;
predictable; equitable; rights-compatible; and transparent) of effective
grievance mechanisms companies can apply.
A group of socially responsible investors
also hailed the report for promoting greater transparency on corporate
human rights performance. The social investors also noted that an
"affirmative approach to human rights" could benefit "risk-conscious
corporations" by reducing the need for shareholder activism. For example,
Newmont Mining improved its human rights and environmental practices and so
recommended voting in favor of a 2007 shareholder resolution seeking such
action that received 95.3 percent support, according to a report
supplementing Ruggie's mandate.
One issue addressed in the report, child labor, is the subject of
increasing attention of late. Congressmen Tom Harkin and
Eliot Engel applauded recent progress on the Harkin-Engel Protocol,
which was established in 2001 to address child labor in the West African
cocoa supply chain. After setbacks outlined by International
Labor Rights Forum director Bama Athreya in a recent edition of
Corporate Watchdog Radio, the Protocol is headed back in a
positive direction, according to its namesakes.
For example, the International Cocoa
Verification Board (ICVB) has chosen two agencies to verify the validity
of certification surveys of child labor and adult forced labor in
Ghana and the Ivory Coast: Norway-based Fafo Institute for Applied
International Studies and South Africa-based Khulisa Management Services.
While verification is just a step in a larger process, the hope is to
eventually document improvement in the status of child and adult labor
practices.
Finally, this week the World Cocoa Foundation
honored two West African women working toward just this goal. Akosua
Frema Osei-Opare of Ghana and Amouan Acquah Assouan of Cote D'Ivoire have
pushed their respective governments to tackle the worst forms of child
labor.
This article was written by CSRwire contributor Bill Baue.
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