The UN’s Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises will hold a Forum on Business and Human Rights on December 4 and 5 in Geneva.

The forum could have important ramifications for business, especially since trade unions and NGOs are demanding far-reaching measures for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Such measures could take the form of extraterritorial jurisdiction, the linking of compliance with the UN Principles to access to export credits and public procurement, mandatory reporting on due-diligence outcomes, and the establishment of a European complaints mechanism for alleged violations.

In view of this, USCIB is seeking to facilitate a broad industry turnout at the forum, including from small and medium-sized enterprises. Representation will take place through the International Organization of Employers (IOE), part of USCIB’s global network.

The IOE has been able to negotiate the availability of a “public space” at the forum venue, where companies can present information and materials on their human rights activities during two-day forum. Please contact us for additional information.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules to implement Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank law requiring companies to publicly disclose whether they source four metals – tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold – from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country, and whether doing so benefited armed groups in the DRC.

The eastern portion of the DRC has been affected by civil and military conflict for decades, leading to numerous UN and other international efforts to stem the violence.  Section 1502 was included in Dodd-Frank to respond to concerns that armed groups in the DRC are using mining and minerals trade to help finance the conflict.

“While the SEC rules included some limited changes sought by business, they still contain many overly prescriptive and burdensome provisions, and are likely to ensure the continued de-facto embargo of minerals from the DRC as companies seek to avoid having to report under the rules,” said Adam Greene, USCIB’s vice president of labor affairs and corporate responsibility.

Additionally, Greene noted that the SEC failed to conduct an adequate cost-benefit analysis of the new rules:  even though the SEC increased their cost estimate from $71 million to $3-4 billion, the new figure still falls well below other estimates that range from $8 to16 billion, and no effort was made to quantify the benefits of the new rule.  As a result, it is nearly certain that one or more U.S. business groups will sue the SEC to block the adoption of the Final Rules.

Independent from the SEC rulemaking process, the OECD has developed due diligence guidance for sourcing minerals from areas of conflict  minerals and is currently coordinating a multi-stakeholder process to help companies and trade associations implement the guidance.  The SEC rules explicitly recognize the importance of OECD guidance as the only meaningful international benchmark to which corporate due diligence measures must conform.

Given the important role of the OECD guidance in these or any SEC rules, USCIB has participated directly in the OECD’s work, in order to ensure that the guidance is practical, reasonable and risk-based.  USCIB will continue to play this role going forward and has taken on a leadership role in the governance of the process, which will help us to ensure that it remains effective and well balanced.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee

In a special session of the International Labor Organization’s annual conference in Geneva yesterday, the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was warmly welcomed on behalf of the International Organization of Employers (IOE) by IOE Executive Vice President Daniel Funes de Rioja of Argentina.  USCIB is the IOE’s American affiliate and serves as the voice of American business in the ILO.

Before inviting Suu Kyi to take the floor, Funes de Rioja reaffirmed the employers’ commitment to the tripartite values of the International Labor Organization including the fundamental principles and rights at work laid out in the 1998 ILO Declaration.

Suu Kyi noted that good employer-worker relations would be essential in bringing harmonious prosperity to Burma, and that business should, in considering investing in the country, consider such an endeavor to be a cooperative effort between employers, workers and government. “Investment in Burma should be democracy-friendly and human rights-friendly,” she said.  “this would help us to build Burma.”

In response, Funes de Rioja gave the assurance of the employers that they would work to build solid relationships with workers in Burma, with the respect of fundamental principles and rights at work forming the essence of such a relationship.

Words of support were offered to Ms. Suu Kyi from the IOE’s regional vice president for Asia, Kamran Rahman, as well as from employers’ spokespersons in Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

As the employer spokesperson on the case involving Myanmar in the ILO over many years, Ed Potter, director of global workplace rights with The Coca-Cola Company and chair of USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee, welcomed Suu Kyi’s emphasis on democracy and human rights-led growth.  This, he said, provided a solid base for companies to enter Burma and paved the way for investment. He particularly thanked Suu Kyi for “defining how businesses enter your country …. very much in a human rights, workplace rights- focused environment.”

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Policy Committee