Business and Human Rights in a Time of Change (Christopher L. Avery, Nov. 1999)
6. A dialogue with business
During the past several years I have had the opportunity to discuss business and human rights issues with managers from a number of multinational corporations. Following are my impressions and some of the subjects that arose in these discussions:
6.1 Universality of human rights versus cultural relativism
When it came to a discussion of international human rights standards, the threshold questions posed by business people were important ones that required considerable discussion: Does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflect Western values that they should not impose on countries with other cultural traditions? Have non-Western countries accepted the Universal Declaration? Has China accepted the Universal Declaration?
In response to these questions it was important first to stress the need for cultural sensitivity in deciding the time, place and manner of raising human rights issues, as well as the need to recognise that one's home country also has human rights shortcomings. But it was also important to emphasise that human rights by their very definition are universal and internationally-recognised. Business people were genuinely surprised to hear that virtually every country in the world is on record expressing support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to hear that China had not only endorsed the Universal Declaration but also had ratified the U.N. Convention against Torture. They were impressed by statements of Asians and Africans about being offended by the suggestion that the right to life, freedom from torture, the prohibition of arbitrary detention, and the right to a fair trial are just Western values. Principles of the sacredness of life, of human dignity, and of the importance of justice and fair treatment are reflected in the teaching of all religions and all cultures. The full text of my explanation to business people of the universality of human rights will be available online in late 1999 or early 2000, at the same website as this report.[490]
6.2 Business' responsibility to promote human rights
Business people were interested to hear that corporations have a responsibility under international standards to promote respect for human rights. I drew their attention to the passage in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that "every individual and every organ of society" has the responsibility to strive "to promote respect for these rights and freedoms" and "by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance."[491] As important institutions of society, companies have a responsibility to promote worldwide respect for international human rights. As Sir Geoffrey Chandler has observed, the Universal Declaration "not only legitimizes a company's right to speak out on such matters: it imposes an obligation to do so."[492]
It was also important to draw attention to the fact that international business leaders have recognised the private sector's responsibility to respect and promote human rights, for example in "The Caux Round Table Principles for Business."[493]
6.3 Economic, social and cultural rights
I found it important on many occasions, especially when there was some hesitation by a business person to see any connection between the private sector and human rights, to point out that their company had probably been engaged with some human rights issues for many years. I explained that economic, social and cultural rights were part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and therefore any effective community programmes their company had supported in fields such as sustainable development, education, or health were promoting human rights. That would lead to a discussion about the need for the company to address the full range of human rights, including civil and political rights, since human rights are interdependent.
6.4 Lawsuits
Business people were interested to learn about human rights-related lawsuits that had been brought against corporations, and the damage those lawsuits had caused to the reputation of companies.
6.5 Diverse levels of human rights awareness and attitudes
Some of the managers were very attuned to human rights issues, while to others the subject was something very foreign to their experience. Those who worked in a country with a high level of human rights concerns were not necessarily more knowledgeable about human rights issues than their colleagues working in Western Europe or North America.
I found most discussions among company managers about human rights to be lively affairs reflecting a diversity of views: these were issues they knew could affect them and their company. Some of the managers spoke passionately about their own commitment to human rights and their anxiety about specific abuses taking place in countries where they operated, while other managers (particularly those who were citizens of the country where the alleged human rights violations were taking place) tended to defend the government's point of view (without defending the government's alleged abuses).
6.6 Business managers working overseas want human rights guidelines
No matter what a manager's level of awareness or attitude about human rights, all managers working in countries with a high level of human rights concerns wanted from company headquarters clearer, practical guidelines on what they should be doing to ensure the company's overseas operations respect human rights, and on how they should handle human rights issues arising either within the company or externally. They did not want their company headquarters to think that by adopting a broad set of human rights principles they had washed their hands of the matter; they wanted to know exactly how the company wanted them to behave on the ground in relation to real human rights issues. They had seen what had happened to Shell in Nigeria, to BP in Colombia and to Nike in Asia, and they did not want to find themselves held responsible for getting their company into a similar situation.
6.7 Country-specific human rights recommendations
Managers working in a particular country or region were not fully satisfied with the generic recommendations on business and human rights produced by Amnesty International and other NGOs. While they found many of the general principles articulated in those guidelines to be useful, they considered some of the recommendations to be too broad or not fully relevant or realistic in relation to the particular part of the world where they worked. I tried to assist by producing two country-specific sets of guidelines, one for China and one for Colombia (available online at the same website as this report[494]). These country-specific recommendations were drawn in part from recommendations put forward by Amnesty International and other international human rights organisations, with the addition of recommendations tailored to the particular country.
6.8 Difficult issues for business
The discussions kept coming back to several dilemmas: How can we do business in a country where human rights violations are widespread without being perceived as being too close to the government or profiting from the repression? If we must work in a joint venture with the government, and rely on the government's security forces to protect our staff and operations, and if those security forces allegedly have committed human rights violations, what can we do? Human rights organisations want us to use our influence to promote human rights and the rule of law…how can that be done without jeopardising our ability to continue doing business in the country? At what point would (or should) a high level of human rights abuses by the government cause us to withdraw from the country?