Global Policy Forum

Resolution: People's Action for Corporate Responsibility

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August 2002


We, members of the under-signed organisations and delegates to the groundWork ‘Corporate Accountability Week' held in Sandton, South Africa, in August 2002 on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development,

Recognising

  • That corporate accountability is an important element in struggles for sustainable development and works alongside struggles for indigenous rights, women's rights, environmental justice and equity for the global South,

  • Many of the communities represented here have direct experience of corporate abuse - for example, in Bophal, India, in Norco, USA, in the Rivers States, Nigeria, in Sasolburg, South Africa, in Villa Carioca, Brazil in Tenessarime, Burma, to name but a few,

  • The concentration of power in giant corporations too often leads to people being dispossessed of their rights and resources, and to national economies and global trade rules being subordinated to corporate interests,

  • Currently there are no legally-binding rules and obligations to regulate corporates - especially in critical areas of social and environmental concern,

    Affirming

  • Our commitment to people-centred development which is equitable and sustainable and which secures social and environmental justice for all, and

    Noting

  • The growing scale and power of corporations globally,

  • The negative impacts of corporate abuses on people, communities, livelihoods, and environments,

  • The undue and abusive influence of corporations over policy-making at national and international levels,

  • The lack of democratic control and effective regulation of the activities of corporations, The profound inadequacy of voluntary and self-regulatory mechanisms to address these issues,

  • The negligent failure of governments world wide and international institutions to develop and implement appropriate rules and mechanisms to serve the public interest in the face of egregious corporate abuses of the environment and human rights, and That these factors pose a grave and imminent threat to human rights, environmental justice and people-centred development, and

    Having heard

  • Direct accounts of local community experiences of corporate abuse, Of varied and inspiring campaigns, struggles and activities by people's organisations that respond to and resist corporate abuse, Of the efforts to strive for national and international controls that establish liability for corporate activity and that roll back the excessive powers of corporations, and The consistent call for corporations to be more publicly accountable,

    Call upon

  • Governments to immediately address the impact of corporate abuse by developing national and international:
  • actionable rights for citizens and communities in relation to corporations which guarantee
  • effective participation in decision-making, which to be meaningful must include provisions for the right to say no,
  • access to information on corporate activities,
  • prior informed consent,
  • the right to demand moratoria against unsustainable industry,
  • compensation, reparation and remediation from corporate abuse, and
  • community rights in land and other resources, including those rights which are often subordinated to investor ‘rights', including rights in common property resources and global commons, and rights against being displaced in the interest of corporate profit,
  • binding rules for corporations which establish
  • accountability to the highest social, labour and environmental standards, and
  • liability and compensation for the impacts of their activities on people and environments,
  • mechanisms for enforcement to secure compliance and penalise abuse,
  • mechanisms to phase out unsustainable industries and practices and phasing in safe alternatives,
  • mechanisms to identify and eliminate perverse subsidies to corporations, and
  • systems for monitoring, assessing and verifying corporate behaviour and impacts, with the results transparent and available to the public

    Resolve to

  • Work together at all levels to ensure a common focus and greater coordination on corporate accountability, to build an even stronger and wider global movement taking these issues forward, and to share experiences, learnings, information and victories to secure environmental justice and people-centred development.

    Organisational endorsement:

    African Institute of Corporate Citizenship
    Asociancion Censat Agua Viva
    ANPED
    ATTAC
    Biowatch
    Bryanston Residents and Ratepayers Association
    Bus Riders Union (USA)
    Campagna per La Riforma Della Banca Mondiale
    Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment
    Centre for Environmental Health
    Chatsworth Steering Committee
    Christian Aid
    Citizens Network for Sustainable Development
    CODDEFFAGOLF
    Concerned Citizens of Norco (USA)
    Contact
    Conservation International Liberia
    Corporate Europe Observatory
    CorpWatch
    Earthlife Africa
    Environmental Liaison Centre International
    Environmental Monitoring Group
    Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria)
    EarthRights International
    Federacion de Trabajadores Fabriles de Cochabamba
    Friends of the Earth International
    Global Anti Incineration Alliance
    Global Community Monitor (USA)
    Global Greengrants Fund
    Greater Edendale Environmental Network
    Greenpeace International
    groundWork
    Highveld East Community Environmental Association
    Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organisation
    Institute for Agriculture and Trade and Policy
    International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
    Just 1 World (Canada)
    Kuraman Asbestos Sufferers Association
    Livaningo (Mozambique)
    Municipal Services Project
    National Alliance of People's Movements
    Northern Communities Public Affairs Committee
    Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa
    People and Water
    Peoples United for a Better Oakland
    Polaris Institute
    Rising Tide
    Sasolburg Environmental Committee
    Sobantu Environmental Desk
    The Society for Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility (Canada)
    SAFEAGE
    SOS - Forets
    South African Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice
    South African New Economics Foundation
    South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
    Steel Valley Crisis Committee
    Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Project
    Table View Residents Association
    Thandulwazi Youth Society Ndwedwe
    Third World Network
    Transnational Institute
    Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa
    Yonge Nawe (Swaziland)
    An Taisce

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    FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.