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Coporate accountability key to sustainable development

Delegates attending the ‘Corporate Accountability Week’ held in Sandton, South Africa, in August 2002 on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development called for and reiterated their commitment to the struggle towards corporate accountability. The call came in response to growing corporate abuse to communities by industries particularly multi national businesses. A number of stories and experiences were presented where communities from around the globe have been victims of blatant corporate abuse. The stories included among others Bophal in India, Norco in USA, the Rivers States in Nigeria, Sasolburg in South Africa, and Maloma in Swaziland. Delegates called for legally binding rules and obligations that will regulate corporate practices especially in critical areas of social and environmental issues. 

Corporate accountability is an important element in struggles for sustainable development. If corporations big and small are not accountable for their activities to the communities they affect, a fundamental pillar of action for sustainable development will be missing. A statement issued at the end of the summit said that the struggle for corporate accountability works alongside struggles for indigenous rights, women’s rights, environmental justice and equity for the global South. 

The conference noted that governments globally and international institutions have failed to develop and implement appropriate rules and mechanisms that serve the public interest in the face of insensitive corporate abuses of the environment and human rights. They said that these situations pose a grave and imminent threat to human rights, environmental justice and people-centred development. 

One major failing of the 1992 Earth Summit was the lack of an international framework that would establish and enforce rules on corporate accountability and liability. This has been caused by the abandonment of a United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporation (TNCs) and a Code on TNCs.  Bobby Peek, Director of groundWork, a South African organization that hosted the conference said "Our experience since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 is that corporate claims of voluntary responsibility have proven hollow. Until they are held legally liable, they won't change their behaviour." Delegates called for a legally binding global framework on corporate accountability, responsibility and liability.

A strategy for the WSSD was mapped out. Activists agreed that they would speak the same language that one of lobbying for the development by the 2005 of a framework to secure corporate responsibility, accountability and liability in the context of sustainable development, incorporating relevant international agreements such as those on human rights, and the environment and the full implementation of principles 13, 16, 17 of the Rio declaration. In addition, they underscored that synergy between international instruments, national legislation complemented by a civil society process is critical to monitor and enforce corporates to be accountable for their practices. Delegates were encouraged to continue telling their stories and to keep on compiling cases of corporate abuses in their communities. In addition, they were encouraged to publicise their victories where they have stood up and challenged corporates bad practices. Further, networking with fellow activists was underscored as a vital element in the struggle against corporate abuse.

A statement issued at the close of the conference called 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

The conference was co-sponsored by groundWork and local national organisations Environmental Monitoring Group and Earthlife Africa, as international groups Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Third World Network, Corporate Europe Observatory, CorpWatch and the South African Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice.

What can you do to contribute towards corporate accountability?
There are a number of activities you could do:

• Lobby your government and or parliament. Make corporate accountability an issue. 
• Promote joint platform and practice in your campaigning.
• Tell your story and compile cases of corporate abuses in your community
• Publicise your victories where a corporate has positively responded to your demands. 
• Outreach to other movements (unions, human rights, progressive business and others)
• Host your cases to onto the international site and link groups cases
• Take part in global cerebrations such as the International Day of Action on Corporate Accountability (Date to be announced)