AFRICA/GLOBAL: SHELL LEADS INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CAMPAIGN AGAINST UN HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS

One of the hottest topics at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) - Geneva, March 15 to April 23 - will undoubtedly be the future of the proposed Norms on Business and Human Rights. Approved last August by a UNHCR Sub-Commission of human rights experts, the Norms make the human rights obligations of transnational corporations explicit and suggest further steps towards corporate accountability. Corporate lobby groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have launched a fierce counter-campaign aiming to kill off the proposal, with self-proclaimed Corporate Social Responsibility champion Shell in a leading role.

…The most vocal opposition has come from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Employers Organisation (IEO). On the national level, groups like the US Council for International Business (USCIB) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) campaign heavily to get the Norms sidelined. The ICC, which calls itself the 'world business organisation' and has hundreds of large multinationals in its ranks, stubbornly claims that voluntary industry initiatives are sufficient to protect human rights. [P6: HAH!] Stefano Bertasi from the ICC`s Paris headquarters explains: "We don't have a problem at all with efforts that seek to encourage companies to do what they can to protect human rights. We have a problem with the premise and the principle that the norms are based on. These Norms clearly seek to move away from the realm of voluntary initiatives... and we see them as conflicting with the approach taken by other parts of the UN that seek to promote voluntary initiatives."