Isolda Agazzi/Infosud - Ron Popper, a senior executive with ABB has this to say. "Without human rights, corporate social responsibility is just public relations!" It is a statement that those attending the meeting on the 14th May in Geneva, organised by the Human Rights Tribune, seem to agree with. It is a constructive debate without any spin between NGOs and multinationals, unaccustomed to facing each other under the media spotlight.

"Yes, but corporate responsibility goes beyond human rights. It also covers trade union rights, and protection of the environment" says Anne Kathrin Glatz from the Declaration of Bern. For her the situation is hardly rosy. "In the 1970’s the UN tried to come up with a convention on the multinationals. Over the next 20 years, with the US blocking the North South dialogue, there was a real sense of going backwards. Since the end of the 90’s, there has been a lot of rhetoric, but very little of substance. The UN global pact is still very weak and it only whitewashes the companies that take part. That is to say it gives them a good image".

Facts and not opinions

Jacques Emmanuel Saulnier, representing Areva – that won the Declaration of Bern’s Public Eye award in 2007, the prize for the most irresponsible company of the year, for its uranium extraction activities in north Niger does not agree. "The world is not black or white and a business must deal with the issues of competition and globalisation". He explains that the French nuclear giant always arranges meetings with those concerned to discuss the implications regarding health, job security, nuclear safety, environmental footprint, human resources. " I invite you to come to see what we do in Niger with your own eyes!", he says to his neighbour.

Anne Kathrin Glatz acknowledges that the prize was awarded on the basis of information gathered by the Niger NGO, Aghirin’man and studies from an independent French institute which had confirmed excessive amounts of radioactivity. Salil Tripathi, from International Alert, hits the nail on the head. "Lets say that you accept Areva’s invitation, how are you going to fund your trip to Niger? Are you going to accept their money? It is very complicated to monitor abuse committed by multinationals: even if we had the means of doing it – which is not the case – how to come up with a process for doing it. There is always the issue of conflict of interests".

In spite of the difficulties, the researcher makes the following appeal from the heart. "NGOs must base their statements on facts. They can ask the media to investigate, as all business and governments are not bad. The media must not just take NGO reports, but cross check the information, and read government reports too. They must come u with facts and not just opinions".

After the multinationals, state enterprises

Salil Tripahti points out that the question of complicity is very complex. "Multinationals never directly violate human rights. But there is a tendency to make them responsible for the crimes committed by state security forces. ABB is accused of complicity in the war in Sudan as if it is written down, they respond, unlike the Sudanese government. This does not take away the considerable responsibility of multinationals – just look at the Chinese oil companies in Sudan. But sometimes western companies have no other choice than to be in a given country and if they leave, they would be replaced by the Chinese and the Indians. When the Canadian company Talisman withdrew from Sudan, the human rights situation in the country neither got worse or better.

This expert says that human rights violations by multinationals are well documented, but they only represent 10% of the world’s business. "We never criticise the mistakes of state enterprises or the informal economy. No one speaks about the thousands of people who die in China’s mines"

Translated from French by Claire Doole