yes graham, unless you know otherwise I am seeing activity on grievance mechanisms but I haven't really seen much discussion of appropriate remedy. where this goes simply beyond stopping doing something or an apology, As you rightly identify this is an area where the legal departments will need to be involved. As yet, we don't have experience.
Hi Francis, a great question. I think that there is a lot more awareness raising to be done - of the GPs, of human rights more broadly, and (as Michael has relayed) how and why human rights is relevant to business. We have found that when communicating with businesses that we engage with through our Outreach programme of work - that the incentives are always there. There's the repetitional pressures, the financial costs of getting it wrong, sometimes evolving legal requirements, and fundamentally I don't think that anybody can disagree with the basic principle of treating people with respect and dignity and not infringing on that.
this is something Michael might like to comment on, if he has resolved his connection problems.
I know the UK government will be bringing out its action plan on the guiding principles shortly, and all EU governments are required to do likewise. Government communication is certainly one route.
This eDiscussion is also perhaps another opportunity? Certainly it was behind some of my thinking in approaching business fights poverty - So I think we need to look for communities which are not yet engaged. Civil society could clearly support more.
I'd say organisations such as Save the Children should be raising the guiding principles in their own discussions with businesses, and also looking at what they can do themselves through their procurement activities etc. Perhaps also by participating in local global compact networks throughout the world
I would have thought that when companies are developing Inclusive Business models it would be to their great advantage to keep the Ruggie Principles firmly in mind and to test their new models with respect to their impact on the human rights of their employees, customers and suppliers. Nothing like front-end loading a new model with such tests before any adverse impacts occur. Don't know of any company explicitly doing this but there must be some experience out there in the agricultural supply chains like Unilever's.
I am here. Very interested in this subject. Forgive me for not being up to speed. I need a link to the published guidelines. My organization is in the planning stages of working with people in poverty. But looking from the outside in I see other organizations that have good intensions, but what appears is a lack of insight into the degrading of character they force on individuals who are at their lowest point when receiving assistance. For instance, and this is America (not a third world country) a local organization has started homeless persons to working at car washing, cutting grass, and cleaning for persons who own real estate and will allow the homeless person to live in a property for low rent, no benefits or anything. This is better than nothing, but it seems wrong to me. I don't want to start a fuss if I can't do anything to help in a more productive manner. But this is why I am here to get some experts interested in my proposed Micro Social Enterprise Center, which is being upstarted in a "Google Community". If anyone is interested in joining and would like to share what to do and not to do in these situations please reply and I will send a "personal invitation" to what is a "private community". We need to teach people how to fish, and stop giving temporary solutions.
It’s encouraging to see that some large companies have embraced the guiding principles, as have multi-lateral political entities such as the European Commission. The UK government has promised its own strategy on business and human rights by the end of this year, which will make it one of the first state adopters. The truth is, we’ve enjoyed a honeymoon period of getting to know the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We have had panel discussions, webinars and blogs, and the debate has been good and truly interesting. Now it’s time for businesses and governments alike to step up to the challenge at hand and turn these good words into actions.
(Lifted from a blog from ETI Director, Peter McAllister: http://www.businessfightspoverty.org/profiles/blogs/when-words-are-not-enough)
At Unilever, through our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), we set up ambitious goals to address poverty which are anchored on embedding Human and Labour rights throughout our value chain. It would not be possible to address poverty without ensuring universal rights are respected.
to add on this - language is often too technical. We have to make it easy and tangible for senior management and employees
Well said Alan and couldn't agree more.
I'm not sure if we currently are seeing an explicit link or coherent vision relating the UN Framework and Guiding Principles to poverty alleviation - though both clearly have rights as their focal point. However, in terms of proactive CSR or philanthropic programmes that companies have taken to support communities and poverty-related issues, I think there is a greater understanding now that this isn't sufficient in securing the social license to operate, and that starting with understanding the actual impacts of the business on people's human rights is essential. I spoke about this a little in the blog written for this series http://www.businessfightspoverty.org/profiles/blogs/engaging-business-globally-on-human-rights
We are about to reach the end of this live session, but we'll leave this discussion open - so please do feel free to add your comments!
Can I say a big thank you to all our panelists, to all of you who tuned in, and to those who posted comments.
Thanks also to twentyfifty for organising today's session and this week's Human Rights Special. You can read all the articles here:
- Michael Addo: The United Nations Approach to Business and Human Rights
- Jan Klawitter: Implementing the UN Guiding Principles at Anglo American
- Madeleine Koalick: Assessing Corporate Human Rights Impacts – Lessons from Kenya
- Katryn Wright: Engaging Business Globally on Human Rights
- Peter McAllister: When words are not enough
Hazel, here you go http://www.business-humanrights.org/SpecialRepPortal/Home/Protect-Respect-Remedy-Framework/GuidingPrinciples
Thanks Luke- we certainly are looking to do much more of this.
yes Graham, there is quite bit of such activity in the agricultural sector. Take a look at Mondelez's Cocoa Life program for example http://www.cocoalife.org/ , Nestle of course are also very actively undertaking impact assessments and training etc.
Great discussion - thanks everybody.
Thank you all for the interesting and enriching discussion: Could you please provide examples of specific grivance mechanisms that you have implemented and how you address the legally problematic question "of boundary and scope of the supply chain and our responsibility".
Thank you for the link Mr. Wilde