Statement to the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, Mariëtte van Huijstee, SOMO

10May 2012

  1. Good afternoon, my name is Mariëtte van Huijstee from SOMO, which is a Dutch acronym for Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. SOMO is an independent non-profit research and networking organization, investigating the social and environmental impacts of Transnational Corporations policies and operations and more generally, the internalization of business worldwide. SOMO is also the host and secretariat of the OECD Watch network. Let me outline how SOMO and OECD Watch think the Annual Forum could be used to establish maximum impact in furthering the implementation of the guiding principles.
  1. In previous communications, the working group has pointed out it will use best practices and positive examples of the implementation of the GPs as an important means to further the implementation of the GPs and fulfil its mandate. SOMO and OECD Watch agree that best practices are an important source of learning on how to implement the GPs. However, best practices should not be the only source of guidance. They do not provide a complete picture of what is occurring with regard to business and human rights and, by themselves, they will not provide sufficient guidance. We have already seen diverging interpretations of the meaning of the GPs.Clear guidance on appropriate implementation of the GPs by the working group is urgently needed.
  1. In order to counter the risk of divergent interpretations and provide for effective guidance to companies and governments on appropriate implementation of the GPs, the working group should consider both best practices and cases of business-related human rights abuse. The WG should draw on fact-finding (by others and through their own efforts) and interpret the GPs in light of the facts. The objective should be to demonstrate how the implementation of the GPs could prevent or mitigate abuses. To do this, the WG must be in a position to consider the lessons to be learned from situations in which a failure to implement the GPs has led to negative impacts on or disputes with stakeholders. Only by considering such ‘negative’ cases, in addition to ‘positive’ best practices, can we learn and experience the full value of the GPs in terms of prevention, mitigation and redress. Only then will we be able to move from principles to practice in articulating expectations of states and businesses.
  1. SOMO and OECD Watch therefore call on the working group to use the Annual Forum as a forum to review concrete cases of adverse human right impacts by business and, based on this review, to formulate recommendations for business and states to address these impacts. We suggest that the programme of the two day Annual Forum will be structured around the three pillars of the framework and the GPs, with a separate session dedicated to each pillar. In each session, an existing case of a business related human rights abuse can be reviewed in a multi-stakeholder setting, with the working group providing authoritative guidance on the interpretation of the GPs in the concrete case.It goes without saying that the rights-holders involved in the reviewed cases should be capacitated to attend the Annual Forum and provide the Forum participants with additional insights in the cases under review.
  1. Unfortunately, the working group recently has made clear that it willnot investigate individual cases. Alternatively, we suggest the working group would review and comment on cases of business-related human rights abuses that have been documented by fellow UN special rapporteurs. An additional advantage of this approach would be that is strengthens the ties of the WG within the UN system.
  1. In the coming years, SOMO and our partners will build capacity to monitor the implementation of the Guiding Principles by states and transnational corporations with the aim of furthering an ambitious interpretation and implementation of the GPs. Unfortunately, it can be expected that we will come across multiple concrete cases of adverse human rights impacts by business which will demonstrate weak implementation of the GPs and potentially shortcomings in the GPs themselves.SOMO would be willing to share specific relevant case examples resulting from our research and that of our partners with the working group and other stakeholders during the Annual Forum. OECD Watch maintains and conducts analysis on a database of cases that provides wealth of information about businesses’ impacts on human rights and their approach to implementing that could be similarly shared with the WG. We encourage the WG to incorporate this critical knowledge into its activities and hope that it will provide a constructive contribution to the articulation of concrete expectations of states and businesses in implementing the GPs.