Are you familiar with any guides, case studies, reports, videos, websites, toolkits, etc that may help practitioners working with corporations to assess and improve their human rights impact? Share these resources here by adding a comment below or replying to existing comments!
Share resources on working with corporations
Tue, 04/17/2012 - 5:14pm
#1
Share resources on working with corporations
I would like to share the link to the Business and Rights Resource Centre which provides an excellent resource including regular updates on the actions of corporations around the world. The website also has a "Tools and Guidance" page that provides a link to resources for the Guiding Principles since the UN Human Rights Council endorsed them on 16 June 2011.
Are any of you utilizing this website and its resources in your efforts. If so, please share your experiences.
I was fascinated to learn about this online community and the dialogue concerning working with enterprises to assess and improve human rights impact. I could not hesitate to think about sharing my conference paper with the community. It is essentially a fragment of a research work concerning the roles which States and oil corporations play in transporting the fruits of international environmental & labour policies from top level to bottom level (grassroots level). The analysis is based on current institutional frameworks and mechanisms based on the Convention on Biological Diversity regime. In a nutshell, it is a critque about sustainable environmental policy hypocrisy; and how these policies relegate fundamental right of indigenous people/local communities. It equally exposed innovative channels with which the instrumentality of enterprises could be used for facilitating socio - environmental rights of vulnerable communities. The paper will be presented in a conference at the School of Law University of Dundee Scotland on 20th April 2012 and at the International Congress on Environmental Health in Lisbon - end of May. This is an academic piece of work which could be invaluable to: academics, activists, policy experts etc who aspire to look at international policies with a multidisciplinary spectacles. Comments and feedback on any aspect of the paper - whatsoever; would be greatly appreciated.
Title: The Elusive Nature of Indigenous People's Rights under International Environmental Law
Thanks for sharing this information about your academic paper, Ugo! If you came across any specific stories about how communities and organizations are working cooperatively and collaboratively with oil corporations, it would be great to read about those stories in our discussion thread on How do organizations work with corporations to improve human rights?
Thanks!
While on this topic, I would certainly recommend the following:
I am in Bolivia right now, and I also think the example of the Bolivia´s procedure for consultation and participation of indigenous communities in the approval process for extractive sector projects (SD 29033: Reglamento de consulta y participación para actividades hidrocarburíferas (16 February 2007).is also a fascinating one. For one in depth and critical review of this procedure see http://www.giga-hamburg.de/dl/download.php?d=/content/publikationen/pdf/wp184_schilling.pdf
Thanks for sharing these great resources, Claire! I wanted to point out that the Danish Insitute for Human Rights also has some great resources. Reed Addis, a former staff of the Danish Institute for HR, collaborated with us years ago to write an in-depth case study of their own process of developing an impact assessment tool that NGOs can use with corporations:
Human Rights and the Corporation: The development of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment
In this notebook Reed Addis describes the development of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment by the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The Compliance Assessment, based somewhat on the model of an Environmental Impact Assessment, was developed through a long process of consultation with businesses from many different industrial sectors, and provides a framework through which businesses can assess their human rights obligations and measure the liabilities and human rights risks in countries where they operate or plan to locate. The tool helps companies understand human rights law, but can also help human rights groups understand companies and learn to communicate with the corporate world about human rights questions in a more constructive way.
It is a fantastic, short booklet - we highly recommend it!
Are there other guides out there on how to develop an impact assessment tool?
Hello Ugo,
I am very interested in discourse, and how language is used to talk about the environment specifically. It is cool to hear that you have done significant work in research of international environmental policy and law, as this is of main interest to me as an Environmental Studies major thinking of going to law school. I am left wondering your opinion on the question of:
How has the language used in certain policies impacted how the policy has been carried out in its effectiveness? For example, "sustainable agriculture" according to Monsanto means sustaining our food supply, whereas it means doing agriculture in an environmentally sustainable way in other contexts. In your experience, have you seen language twisted or manipulated to meet others wants or demands? How does language play into corporate deception, or how has certain language impacted the citizens? Additionally, are there rules or a code of ethics associated with your profession related to how language or wording is used? I thank you for your time.
Hello all!
I have been focusing on human trafficking for the Conflict Resolution class at St. Thomas and I came across this unique initiative. It encourages business travelers to report possible human trafficking related instances that they have seem on their travels and encourages them to be a loud voice against human trafficking.
http://businesstravellers-org.web26.winsvr.net/
I was wondering what you all thought about this program? Also how else can we work with corporations and business professionals to turn them into part of the solution instead of a driving force in the demand?
Happy Earth Day!
Elizabeth Phyle
Interesting example, Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing this. It is interesting that the target of this campaign is the business traveler. It seems like this campaign offers a potential collaboration between a human rights campaign and a company through its employees. Are others familiar with campaigns that target employees as opposed to the companies as entities?