Corporate Accountability
Corporate Accountability or Corporate social responsibility (CSR) receives a great deal of public attention. SOMO conducts research and stimulates activities that promote CSR. In addition, SOMO evaluates the effectiveness of CSR initiatives and the degree to which
initiatives, policy and norms actually contribute to sustainable economic
development and responsible corporate codes. This research is the basis of
SOMO’s proposals to introduce binding regulations.
Many CA related articles can be found in the dossiers of the specific Sector & Supply chains
Corporate Accountability News
Sustainable criteria become entrenched in city neighbourhoods
13-04-2012
Three large cities in the Netherlands are now participating in the Sustainable Squares Project. In developing plans for a public square, the choice is made to procure products and materials which have been produced sustainably, wherever possible. In the East district of Amsterdam, the Sustainable Squares Project has been actively involved in the refurbishment of the Beukenplein from the beginning. ‘This is a way to raise awareness regarding the environmental and social issues that play a part in the production of stones and street furniture, not only among council employees and project developers, but also among civilians and users of public spaces,’ says Liesbeth Unger of Human Rights@Work, who is the project leader of the Sustainable Squares Project.
Grievance mechanisms central to new human rights programme
31-01-2012
In the next four years, SOMO will be working on the improvement of grievance mechanisms for victims of human rights violations by enterprises. To this end, the new human rights fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has granted SOMO over €1.5 million.
Lack of transparency on origins of coal leaves Dutch in the dark
24-01-2012
Despite earlier promises, electricity companies continue to withhold important information about the origin of the coal they use. As a result, it is likely that coal imported into the Netherlands comes from mines where abuses of human rights and the environment are taking place. This is one of the conclusions of The Black Box: Obscurity and Transparency in the Dutch Coal Supply Chain, a report published today by SOMO in collaboration with Greenpeace. SOMO and Greenpeace call on the electricity companies to be transparent about the coal supply chain and guarantee consumers that no coal is used from mines where human rights and the environment are threatened.
Minister Bleeker answers questions from parliament and pledges support to makeITfair
27-07-2011
In honour of International Action Day “Time to bite into a fair Apple – Call for sustainable IT” on 7 May, organised by makeITfair and GoodElectronics, Dutch political parties ChristenUnie (orthodox Christian party) en GroenLinks (left wing greens) asked questions in parliament to Minister Bleeker of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.
Questions in the Dutch Parliament concerning alleged breaches of the OECD Guidelines by Dutch grain trading company Nidera.
21-07-2011
On 25 June 2011, an OECD Guidelines complaint was submitted against the Dutch grain company Nidera. The complaint, submitted by the Argentinean NGOs CEDHA and INCASUR and the Dutch NGOs Oxfam Novib and SOMO to the National Contact Point (NCP) for OECD Guidelines in the Netherlands, related to the activities of Nidera in Argentina. In the past year, degrading working conditions were observed on the company’s plantation for seed cultivation in San Pedro near Buenos Aires. Partly on the basis of the OECD Guidelines complaint, published in OECD Watch’s “Quarterly Case Update”, Labour Party parliamentarians Pauline Smeets and Sjoera Dikkers put questions in the Dutch Parliament on 29 June regarding the way in which the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation gathered information on the company.
