August 8, 2003
Madame President, my name is Chip Pitts, and I am speaking on behalf of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights also joins in this Statement. For several years now, the Lawyers Committee has followed the deliberations of the Working Group on Transnational Corporations, and participated with the broad coalition of human rights, development, environment, trade unions, business, and other civil society organizations in giving input into the Draft Norms of Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights. We are pleased that the Working Group has been receptive to the broad input that it has received over the last several years, and that the Draft Norms have gradually improved in the process. As we have in the Working Group this year, we now join the many other representatives of civil society calling for the Sub-Commission as a whole to adopt these Norms without further delay.
Madame President, the rights of vulnerable workers being exploited by powerful groups in society demand nothing less. Despite the fact that the international economy is built on the backs of these workers, millions of them – typically drawn from the most vulnerable groups in society – endure substandard working conditions daily. The great majority of these workers are young women and children. Forced labor, long working hours without compensation for overtime, and violations of workplace health and safety standards are common in many of the factories where they work. For years, the Lawyers Committee has thus advocated for the rights of workers by supporting models of corporate accountability and strong national regulation.
We are pleased at the comprehensive nature of the Draft Norms, and the strong enforcement and implementation measures contemplated therein. Both of these aspects of the Norms break new ground on the international scene, and move the international community toward the strong legal framework that we have said is so sorely needed. The Norms are also enlightened in covering not just single businesses, but extending obligations throughout the whole transnational enterprise, including subsidiaries, and throughout the entire supply chain. Increasingly, and especially in low-wage, labor-intensive industries like clothing or toys, companies have become little more than brands. They coordinate marketing and distribution arrangements through highly profitable but indirect control mechanisms and outsourcing arrangements. Such companies often own few, if any, production facilities. They rely on subcontractor suppliers in poor, foreign countries in regions like Asia and Latin America, and distance themselves from the extremely low wages, weak government labor, environmental, and human regulation, and the even weaker enforcement of what few regulations exist.
We also join others in highlighting the importance of the Commentary accompanying the Norms. One of the distinguishing features of the Norms, as opposed for example to the very general principles of the U.N. Global Compact, is their detail. But the scholarly detail embodied in the Commentary extends this virtue in vital ways. Accordingly, we view the Commentary as an indispensable and integral part of the Norms, and urge that they also receive strong Sub-Commission endorsement.
The gap between weak national regulation and virtually absent international regulation leaves many workers completely unprotected from horrendous abuses. Despite ad hoc attempts at international regulation in some areas, the abuses continue for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are: 1) the impunity governments grant powerful corporations; 2) the lack of local laws to protect labor; 3) good laws rendered useless because of weak enforcement; and 4) overt efforts to thwart freedom of association, unions – elements of civil society.
Comprehensive international regulation is thus a prerequisite to closing the gap and ending the persistent abuses. The Norms have a suitably broad scope, referencing all of the major international human rights and labor rights treaties and ILO Conventions as well as obligations stemming from the environmental, consumer protection, humanitarian, and anti-corruption arenas. But we expect that they will also bring helpful upward pressure to bear on trade treaties and national regulations, by restating and affirming the principal legal obligations pertaining to global business. Perhaps most significantly, the Norms are unprecedented in putting U.N. legitimacy behind proposed independent monitoring and implementation measures. Corporate decisions will thus be exposed to new public scrutiny.
And, Madame President, enlightened business leaders invite such scrutiny as enhancing the quality of the decisions they take. As an example, the International Business Leaders Forum – which works with many transnational corporations to promote corporate responsibility – has welcomed the Norms as “the most authoritative and comprehensive set of guidelines to date that makes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applicable to companies.” They say the Norms “distill the numerous other sets of human rights guidelines, providing a unique common reference point for companies, and bringing much needed clarity to a difficult area.” The IBLF goes on to express “hope that the Draft Norms, together with the elucidating Commentary, will be adopted by the U.N. Sub-Commission, and that significant emphasis be placed on strong implementation and verification in order to strengthen the framework in which companies, large and small, multinational and domestic, are held to account for their human rights performance.” Madame President, we agree that the Norms provide a helpful clarification of the affirmative compliance obligations of transnational corporations, and also agree with their requirement that nations and enforcement bodies ultimately must assure effective implementation.
In short, by leveling the playing field at a much higher level than before, the U.N. Norms will be of inestimable value both for enlightened businesses trying to do what’s right, and for groups like ours who will be watching and ensuring that that they actually do so. Our thanks go out to the Working Commission and to the Sub-Commission as a whole for what will be, once the Norms are adopted, a truly historic achievement in moving toward a more just and fair world.