Christopher L. Avery

361 Lauderdale Tower, Barbican, London EC2Y 8NA, United Kingdom

E-mail: [email protected]                __________________________________________________________________________________________

November 1997

COLOMBIA: Recommendations to a company doing business in Colombia

The following recommendations suggest some practical steps a company doing business in Colombia could take to promote the rule of law and human rights. The recommendations, assembled by me in my personal capacity, are drawn in part from recommendations put forward by various international human rights organizations. This is an informal draft, intended to encourage discussion.

1. Publicly condemn human rights violations.

2. Publicly urge a full and impartial investigation into all reported human rights violations, and urge that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

• Rigorously monitor and make inquiries about the progress of each investigation of violations in and around the area of your operations.
• Continue following and inquiring about each case until the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

3. Show zero tolerance for human rights violations by the military, particularly in and around the area of your company's operations.

• Make clear to the military that your company will not tolerate human rights violations.
• If serious human rights violations are committed in the area of your company's operations, your company should re-examine its presence in the country and whether its investment is appropriate and justifiable.
• Take up with the military any allegations of human rights violations.
• Make clear to the military that it is intolerable for those involved in legitimate protests (for example, environmental protests or protests against the presence of multinationals) to be labelled subversives and to be subjected to human rights violations.

4. Review all policies and practices of operation in areas of conflict to ensure that the company's relations and contacts (both formal and informal) with the military do not, however unwittingly, play a part in contributing to human rights violations.

• Ensure that no information is passed to the security forces (however unwittingly) which could be used to target individuals for extrajudicial killings, "disappearances", wrongful imprisonment, or other human rights violations.
• Ensure that all your company's staff and sub-contracted personnel (including those working in remote areas) are fully informed and trained about how to relate to the military, security agents, NGOs, labour activists, human rights activists, and protestors, in such a way as to ensure that your company's activities promote respect for human rights and do not contribute to human rights violations.
• Systems should be in place to ensure that staff at your company's outposts (including security staff and sub-contracted personnel) comply with all your company's central guidelines and policies designed to ensure respect for human rights.

5. Review all policies and practices relating to your company's private security employees.

• Ensure all security employees, including sub-contracted personnel, are properly trained in human rights standards.
• Ensure that no security employees or sub-contracted personnel are hired who have previously been involved in the commission of human rights abuses.
• Ensure that no security employees or sub-contracted personnel improperly pass information to the military or otherwise collude with the military in a manner which may lead to human rights violations.

6. Develop a dialogue with the local community in the area of your operations on issues relating to human rights, the environment, development, etc.

• Examine, and respond to, concerns raised by the local community relating to these issues.
• Contribute to community plans for sustainable economic development.

7. Consider becoming actively involved in "Business Leaders for Peace" ("Empresarios por la paz")*

• This group of business people in Colombia is urging the government and military to explore alternatives to military conflict (such as dialogue and negotiation) as a means of moving the country forward, ending human rights violations, and reconciling Colombian society.

8. Maintain regular dialogue with human rights organizations in Colombia, as well as international human rights organizations, so that views can be shared and concerns can be freely discussed.

9. Adopt and enforce a company policy on human rights.

• Rigorously monitor implementation of the policy at the international, national and local levels, to ensure it is implemented in practice.
• Include in each of your company's Annual Reports a progress report on how the policy has been implemented in practice.

10. Train your company's managers and staff about international human rights standards and about how to apply company policy on human rights.

11. Your senior managers in Colombia and at international headquarters should regularly review:

a) the human rights record of all company operations in Colombia,

b) Concerns about respect for the rule of law and human rights in Colombia

• Regarding (a), discussion should focus on any shortcomings, and how improvements could be made.
• Regarding (b), specific concerns should be raised with the Colombian government and military. If human rights violations are so pervasive in Colombia that your continued operation in the country may require the company to engage in or condone conduct incompatible with fundamental internationally-recognized human rights standards, the company should re-examine its presence in the country and whether an investment is appropriate and justifiable.