Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 by the
Inter Press Service
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Major church groups from around the
world Tuesday launched a global corporate code of
conduct that will be used to help determine whether
their investment arms should buy or shun shares in
corporations working in developing countries.
Ten years in the making, 'Principles
for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for
Measuring Business Performance' addresses a wide
range of issues faced by the corporate
social-responsibility movement, including sweatshop
labor, pollution control and access to affordable
drugs, including anti-AIDS medication for employees of
multinational companies.
It also calls for corporations to ensure adequate
and continuing consultation with the local communities
where they invest, to ensure that their operations are
understood and supported by the people most directly
affected by them.
The code was itself the product of consultations
between church groups in the North with their
counterparts and other non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) in poor countries, according to Rev. David
Schilling, director of global corporate responsibility
at the Interfaith
Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) in New
York.
"There is a strong emphasis on the dignity of the
individual person and the sustainability of local
communities," he said in a global teleconference with
journalists Tuesday. "That differentiates this
initiative from those, like the UN's Global Compact,
the Global Reporting Initiative and other codes."
"The Global Bench Marks will help us concentrate on
key issues with our global partners," said Barbara
Hayes, chair of the
Ecumenical Council on Corporate Responsibility (ECCR)
in London. "We will be able to involve our partners in
gathering information on companies for analysis and
then to act together."
"We believe that this approach will be helpful for
responsible investors and for those working more
directly with the communities," she added.
The corporate responsibility movement, which began
when the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s pressed
major U.S. and other western-based corporations to
withdraw from South Africa, has become an ever-more
prominent part of the business landscape, particularly
since the end of the Cold War.
The ICCR, which played a key role in mobilizing
shareholders in many U.S. corporations to join the
anti-apartheid struggle, has become an association of
275 faith-based institutional investors, including
national denominations, religious communities, pension
funds, endowments, hospital corporations and other
entities with a combined portfolio value of about 110
billion dollars.
But its influence goes far beyond that, as money
managers and institutional investors--especially union
and public-employee pensions funds worth hundreds of
billions of dollars--have decided that corporations
with poor records on human and worker rights,
environmental protection and related issues are often
poor investment risks.
About $2 trillion in portfolio assets in the United
States are subject to some socially responsible
investment (SRI) criteria, according to recent
estimates.
The rising tide of SRI, as well as increasing media
attention paid to corporate abuses, particularly in
developing countries, over the past decade has
prompted some corporations to enact codes of conduct
to reassure consumers and investors. In other cases,
independent bodies, like the United Nations and the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) have promoted codes of their own.
French President Jacques Chirac, who is hosting
this year's summit of leaders of the Group of Eight
(G8) most industrialized nations at Evian Jun. 1-3,
had proposed that the leaders endorse a "Charter of
Principles for a Responsible Market Economy" as their
contribution to the growing concern over corporate
behavior.
But those plans were abandoned at a meeting last
week as a result of opposition from the U.S. and
British governments, according to environmental group
Friends of the Earth
International.
The Global Bench Marks call for corporations to
address three major issues in particular.
On workplace conditions, the report recommends that
corporations adhere closely to core labor rights as
defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO),
based on respect for freedom of association and the
right to organize, particularly: collective
bargaining; non-discrimination in employment; the
rights of children; payment of a sustainable living
wage; and a healthy working environment free of all
forms of harassment and reasonable work schedules.
On pollution and the environment, it calls for
corporations to address issues such as climate change,
biodiversity and the prevention of pollution, and to
take responsibility for the environmental impact of
their production processes and products and services
throughout their lifecycles.
On access to pharmaceuticals, the report calls on
global corporations to provide adequate coverage for
their employees and dependents where governments do
not provide universal health coverage, including
necessary life-sustaining medicines for HIV/AIDS
victims. Companies should also adopt a policy of
non-discrimination against employees with AIDS.
Other issues covered by the Bench Marks include the
sustainability of local communities, genetically
modified organisms, contract supplier guidelines,
indigenous rights, public reporting, corporate
lobbying and governance and the involvement of
stakeholders in corporate decision-making.
The report also calls for companies to create
internal structures, such as a human rights committee
of the board of directors, and a senior executive in
each operation who has the responsibility for all
human rights matters, to ensure accountability at both
the management and board levels.
Companies should also put in place, says the
report, policies that will determine under what
circumstances they would withdraw from a country if
its government was particularly abusive of, for
example, the rights of its citizens or indigenous
groups.
The initiative also stresses the importance of
independent monitoring by local NGOs of corporate
behavior, particularly in developing countries, as
reports originating from the local community about
corporate performance are likely to have much more
credibility with investors in the home countries than
audits carried out by international firms or internal
corporate departments.
"Companies behave differently in the Third World,"
noted Bishop Joe Seoka, who runs the Bench Marks
program in South Africa. "They are more into the
accumulation of wealth."
"It's really an exciting opportunity to share
analyses with global partners," noted Hayes, adding
that the ERRC had worked closely with Nigerian groups
in Port Harcourt, the center of the country's oil
production, where many major U.S. and European
corporations are active. "By acting together, we can
promote real change."
Copyright 2003 IPS
|