In recent years, a number of international and intergovernmental
guidelines have been developed that aim to influence the conduct of
multinational enterprises in the field of human rights, labour rights, the
environment and other CSR aspects. These include:
These guidelines are in principle voluntary. However,
despite their non-binding character, there are several mechanisms already in
place to handle violations of international rules of behaviour such as the OECD
Guidelines.
SOMO has been active in the field of the OECD Guidelines
before and after their revision in the year 2000. At the moment, SOMO is maintaining
a database of all OECD cases which have been filed by NGOs worldwide.
Besides that, SOMO is one of the initiators and executors
of the OECD Watch project. OECD
Watch is an international network of NGOs which work together on the topic of
the OECD Guidelines.
Guidelines & Regulation News
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.
25-05-2011
Today, on its 50th anniversary, the OECD will formally adopt a revised text of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises – 10 years after its last major review. The Guidelines set out government expectations for responsible business conduct. While there are valuable additions to the content and scope of the Guidelines, OECD governments failed to agree on more stringent measures to ensure company compliance. This compromises the effectiveness of the OECD Guidelines in resolving conflicts between business and society. These are the conclusions of OECD Watch’s “Statement on the update of the OECD Guidelines for MNEs”, also published today.
20-04-2011
John Ruggie, the special UN representative for human rights and business, presented the definitive Guiding Principles. Organisations such as SOMO can use these to hold businesses accountable when they disregard their human rights policy. There is a large basis of support for these guidelines among various stakeholders, but the principles are not enforceable. In June, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is expected to approve the recommendations of Ruggie.
18-11-2010
In many places in the world where companies cause damage, victims are not entitled to compensation and have difficulty holding companies to account. During the Global Business, Global Rights debate, organised by the MVO Platform and De Balie, politicians, businesses, lawyers and social organisations debated on the options for tackling infringements. Another key subject discussed was better access to the law for victims. Because who can victims go to if there is no adequate legal system to hand?
