Press Release

Social Investment Forum Applauds United Nations for Extending the Mandate of UN Special Representative

CONTACT:

Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

Renewed Three-year Mandate of Professor John Ruggie Encouraging Sign for Greater Disclosure of Corporate Information on Human Rights, Say Forum Members.

 
Members of the Social Investment Forum announced today their strong support for the UN Human Rights Council’s (HRC) recent decision to extend the important mandate of UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations (SRGS) John Ruggie for a period of three years. 

Social Investment Forum President Lisa Woll said:  “This renewed mandate will help us achieve our fundamental responsibility as investors.  Consistent with John Ruggie’s work, we believe that significant and urgent efforts must be undertaken by companies to scrutinize their own operations to minimize the possibility of complicity in human rights abuses.”

Bennett Freeman, senior vice president for social research and policy for Calvert, said:  “We believe that greater disclosure of corporate information related to human rights policy and performance will help investors to correlate the financial performance of companies with prudent management of human rights-related risks in general and to assess the possibility of human rights-related corporate liability in particular.  John Ruggie’s extended mandate is a true victory for all investors in this context.”  

Lauren Compere, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Boston Common Asset Management, said:  “Encouraging more responsible corporate behavior, including promoting a deeper understanding and respect for international human rights standards on the part of business is a core component of the work we do as socially responsible investors through their social screening and corporate engagement.    As investors, we believe that we can make a unique contribution—alongside many others—towards achieving this goal.  We have a fundamental interest and appreciation for the renewed extension of John Ruggie’s mandate.”  

On June 5, 2008, John Ruggie presented his third report to the HRC, “Protect, Respect and Remedy:  A Framework for Business and Human Rights.”  The framework comprises three core principles: the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and the need for more effective access to remedies. The HRC backed Ruggie’s framework.

The HRC also voted to extend Ruggie’s mandate and instructed him to continue to provide guiding views and recommendations on “…ways to strengthen the fulfillment of the duty of the State to protect all human rights from abuses by, or involving, transnational corporations and other business enterprises’, and to ‘… elaborate further on the scope and content of the corporate responsibility to respect all human rights and to provide concrete guidance to business and other stakeholders…” 

Additionally, the Council requested that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights hold a meeting to bring together the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, States, business representatives and all relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations and representatives of victims of corporate abuse, in order to discuss ways and means to operationalize the framework, and to submit a report on the meeting to the Council, in accordance with its program of work.

In a Social Investment Forum letter to the UN Human Rights Council in May 2008, Forum members argued:  “… given the rapid growth of shareholder-driven activity, risk-conscious corporations may benefit from an affirmative approach to human rights issues. As suggested in the SRSG Report, such an approach may mitigate shareholder resolutions and campaigns.  The SRSG Report encourages robust risk assessment that is not only required by the existing U.S. regulatory and judicial scheme, but also is highly advisable from a corporate reputation perspective in the current global environment where information transfer is seamless and media coverage omnipresent.  Undoubtedly, there is a convincing business case for socially responsible investing and concern for human rights.”

Contact information above

News home | More Press Releases >