By Maura Sokol
Image: Human Rights Hands License: Creative Commons
On
November 15th, 2017, Georgetown University Law Center’s Human Rights Institute
hosted a panel discussion on business and human rights. Monitored by Professor
Mitt Regan, representatives from major corporations, the Responsible Business
Alliance, and the federal government spoke about how better business practices
can have an impact on human rights across the globe. Although there is
international cooperation in the area of human rights, protection from the harmful
impacts of business operations still varies widely. Because there is no global
regulator to ensure that everyone enjoys the same basic levels of protection,
there is a major governance gap in human rights. This gap is now being
addressed in part by businesses, who have taken a new approach to viewing their
companies as having an obligation to respect certain human rights, regardless
of local laws.
Genevieve
Taft-Vazquez is a Director in the Global Workplace Rights department for the
Coca Cola Company, and discussed how Coca Cola has tried to move from a supply
chain evaluation to a deeper look at the whole value chain of Coca Cola
production and manufacturing. Coca Cola works under a franchise model, and they
previously focused on ensuring respect for human rights with their independent
bottlers by providing Guiding Principles for their suppliers. The company has
moved to a more comprehensive approach, looking at agricultural production,
advertising sponsors, human rights due diligence for mergers and acquisitions,
and evaluating the implications of buying land for new bottling sites.
Katie
Shay, Legal Counsel on Business and Human Rights for Oath (formerly Yahoo),
discussed the issues of privacy and freedom of expression. These are the main
human rights issues of concern for this type of major internet company. Oath
maintains data on their users that local governments would like to access, and
Oath is the gatekeeper between the information and government actors. To
protect privacy rights, Oath tries to provide notice to the user in most cases.
In other situations, where governments would like content to be removed, Oath
works to ensure that the request was legal if the content is not in violation
of Oath’s own policies on permissible content. Working with local governments
in this way can be a tricky task, as the consequence of being non-compliant is
often that their services will be blocked in the country at issue.
Carlos
Busquets works for the Responsible Business Alliance, a group of tech companies
that came together to work on human rights issues (the group has now opened up
to other companies as well). The companies came together to agree on a common
Code of Conduct for businesses to address a number of human rights issues. One
key issue in the tech industry is the use of forced labor. A 2013 report
revealed that 30-40% of those working in electronics are working under forced
labor conditions. The RBA came to the conclusion that it was not enough for
electronics companies to say they do not want their products made by those
under forced labor; companies have to make sure that the ways workers find
themselves in a forced labor situation are no longer present. Companies must
then go a step further to try and change the very market that creates incentives
for workers to be abused in such a way. The RBA created a set of due diligence
tools for companies to use to combat practices and improve the issue and to
create a market for ethical recruitment.
Jenny
Stein is the Acting Team Leader for the Internet Freedom and Business and Human
Rights team in the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs within the Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. Ms.
Stein’s team approaches business and human rights as a continuously evolving
paradigm. The Bureau promotes human rights generally and also addresses
critical issue areas, such as Burma, North Korea, and Bangladesh in the past.
They work bilaterally with governments as well as with multilateral
organizations such as the UN Human Rights Counsel. Major focuses currently
include trying to advance accountability and transparency, and how to guide
companies on their human rights responsibilities and conduct outside of the US.
Three
guiding principles in human rights law are to protect, respect, and provide
remedies. Many believe that this third pillar is underdeveloped, and the panel
spent some time discussing the development of remedies. Conventionally, there
are two types of remedies, judicial and nonjudicial. An example of the possibilities
of judicial remedies includes the current Supreme Court case of Jesner v. Arab
Bank, in which the Supreme Court will address the question of whether companies
can be sued abroad for human rights abuses. An example of a nonjudicial remedy
is the system of complaints that can be made through the U.S. State Department
if a business violates one of the OECD guidelines. However, the panelists
encouraged the audience to think more broadly about the concept of remedy, and
to ask ourselves: how can we remedy the broader issue, and not just an
individual case? This is an ongoing and evolving issue in human rights law, and
one that businesses are working to address.
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