The new report by Greenpeace “Justice for People and Planet” demonstrates the need for urgent action to establish justice for people and planet and to end corporate capture, collusion and impunity. Through 20 case studies this report presents how corporate power has been used to repeatedly abuse and violate human and environmental rights. The cases show that corporate impunity for environmental destruction and human rights violations is a result of the current economic and legal system. State failure to protect human rights and the environment is caused by corporate capture of decision makers and state institutions, leading to the consequent refusal of politicians to implement binding frameworks and hold corporations to account. The clear failure of voluntary codes and corporate self-regulation to safeguard human rights or the environment has led to renewed public demand for binding rules. Greenpeace calls on governments to adopt 10 Principles for Corporate Accountability.
January 25, 2018 | Greenpeace
Justice for People and Planet
Ending the age of corporate capture, collusion and impunity
Greenpeace calls on governments to adopt these 10 Principles for Corporate Accountability:
- People and the environment, not corporations, must be at the heart of governance and public life.
- Public participation should be inherent to all policy making.
- States should abandon policies that undermine environmental and human rights.
- Corporations should be subject to binding rules both where they are based and where they operate.
- States should require due diligence reporting and cradle to grave responsibility for corporate products and services.
- States should promote a race to the top by prohibiting corporations from carrying out activities abroad which are prohibited in their home state for reasons of risks to environmental or human rights.
- States should create policies that provide transparency in all corporate and government activities that impact environmental and human rights, including in trade, tax, finance and investment regimes.
- Corporations and those individuals who direct them should be liable for environmental and human rights violations committed domestically or abroad by companies under their control.
- People affected by environmental and human rights violations should be guaranteed their right to effective access to remedy, including in company home states where necessary.
- States must actually enforce the regulatory and policy frameworks they create.
