Focus on the Global South

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PLEASE SEND YOUR ENDORSEMENT, TOGETHER WITH
NAME, ORGANISATION AND COUNTRY, TO LUISA NARDI AT
[email protected] [2] BY 23 MARCH.

Statement of Support for the UN Human Rights Norms for Business
To be delivered at the 60th Session of the Commission on Human
Rights

15 March - 23 April 2004, Geneva

We, the undersigned representatives of Civil Society wish to
express our support for the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of
Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with
regard to Human Rights (hereafter also: UN Human Rights Norms
for Business or UN Norms).

In our view, the UN Human Rights Norms for Business represent a
major step forward in the process of establishing a common global
framework for understanding the responsibilities of business
enterprises with regard to human rights. The five-person Working
Group of the Sub-Commission for the promotion and protection of
human rights, which drafted the Norms, developed them through
an open process of consultation with governments, businesses,
NGOs and unions over a period of nearly four years. By adopting
the Norms on August 13, 2003, the Sub-Commission also
approved an extensive commentary on the Norms that provides
clarification of the scope and interpretation of the proposed norms
and transmitted both the Norms and Commentary to the UN
Commission on Human Rights.

The value of the Norms lies in providing coherence to a disparate
set of human rights obligations of non-state economic actors
presently found in various international law instruments, voluntary
standards, and company codes. For instance, they incorporate the
minimum labour standards embodied in documents such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, and the ILO Declaration of Fundamental
Principles of Rights at Work. The Norms do not create new legal
obligations, but simply codify and distil existing obligations under
international law as they apply to companies.

The UN Norms do not attempt to circumvent or undermine the
responsibilities of governments to enforce existing human rights
laws. In fact, they state at the outset that "States have the primary
responsibility to respect, ensure respect for, prevent abuses of, and
promote human rights recognized in international as well as
national law." Nor do the Norms attempt to impose responsibilities
on businesses which are not appropriate to them. Instead they
clearly state that companies have only responsibilities "within their
respective spheres of activity and influence." Indeed the entire
thrust of the Norms is to encourage the development of stable
environments for investment and business, regulated by the rule of
law, in which contracts are honoured, corruption reduced, and
where business enterprises, both foreign and domestic, have
clearly defined rights and responsibilities.

We believe that it is critically important at this stage to avoid a
rushed decision on the UN Norms on the basis of inadequate or
insufficient information. The UN Norms deserve a chance to be
more carefully studied by the Commission on Human Rights,
governments and the business community before any action is
taken. We therefore urge Delegations at the Commission on
Human Rights not to take actions that could undermine the Norms
at this session.

The NGO community and the members of civil society (full list
below) will consider any attempt to act against the Norms --
including sending the Norms back to the Sub-Commission -- to be
detrimental to the notion of corporate accountability.

Please indicate your endorsement:

NAME

ORGANIZATION

ADDRESS

Send to: LUISA NARDI, [email protected] [2]

Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
c/o CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok 10330 THAILAND
Tel: 662 218 7363/7364/7365/7383
Fax: 662 255 9976
E-mail: [email protected] [3]
Web Page http://www.focusweb.org [4]