Welcome to class of

Human Rights, UN, Millennium Development Goals and Businesses

in Emerging Markets

byDr. Satyendra Singh

University of WinnipegCanada

www.uwinnipeg.ca/~ssingh5

UN Global Compact, Business & HR• UN? Eco dev political progress democracy • What is Global Compact? Universal consensus

– UN’s voluntary corporate initiative (Dec, 2007)• Human rights (2)• Labor conditions (4)• Environment (3)• Anti-corruption (1)

• 5000 business participants committed to UNGC• 40% from emerging/developing countries• Improves business performance/QOL• HR issues: Russia? China? India? Africa?

Human Rights Principle 1• Support, respect and protect HR

– Commitment to UNGC– Understand sphere of influence supplier, stakeholders– Compliance with local and international law

• ↑ Lawsuits against multinationals for poor HR practices in EM• Promote and raise standards in EM

– Address consumer concerns– ↑ Worker productivity and retention

• Treat employees with dignity and give fair $ for their work – Build good community relations

Human Rights Principle 2• Ensure businesses are not complicit in HR abuses• Accusations of complicity in a no of contexts

– Direct complicity actively assists in HR abuses• Forced relocation of peoples relating to business activity

– Beneficial HR abuses committed by others/security• Suppression of a peaceful protest against business activities• Use of repressive measures

– Silent failure to ↓ systemic HR violations• Discrimination ethnicity, gender, religion, health, etc.

Labor Standards Principle 3• Uphold freedom of association and right to

collective bargaining– Freedom of association

• Freely, voluntarily establish and join asso of their own choice• Employers no discrimination against association members

– Collective bargaining• Employer and employees discuss and negotiate their relations• Position vs. interest-based bargaining negotiations

– Why is the freedom and collective bargaining important?• Employers and employees understand each other's problems

better and find ways to resolve them• Opportunities for constructive, and not confrontational dialogue

Labor Standards Principle 4• Elimination of forced and compulsory labor

– Work extracted under the menace of penalty– Who has not offered himself or herself voluntarily– Who is not free to leave work as per established rules

• Slavery• Bonded labour or debt bondage work as slaves to repay debts of their parents• Child labour Abusive conditions Rugs, Mcdonald’s toys• Physical abduction or kidnapping• Sale of a person into the ownership of another• Physical confinement• Exploitative practices forced overtime• Lodging of deposits for employment $, personal documents, passport…• Deception or false promises about terms and types of work

Labor Standards Principle 5• Abolition of child labor

– ILO conventions Minimum Age Convention No. 138– Minimum age for admission to employment or work

• Developed countries Developing countries• Light Work 13 Years Light Work 12 Years• Regular Work 15 YearsRegular Work 14 Years• Hazardous Work 18 Years Hazardous Work 18 Years

– Children have distinct rights• Child labour is damaging to a child’s physical, social, mental,

psychological and spiritual development • Deprives them of childhood, dignity; separates from families

Apple, Samsung, Sony… use Cobalt in Lithium batteries

Cobalt in Congo

Labor Standards Principle 6• Elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation

– Treating differently or less favourably because of characteristics that are not related to the job

• race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, social origin, age, disability, HIV/AIDS status, trade union membership, and sexual orientation

• Recruitment, remuneration, hours of work and rest, paid holidays, maternity protection, security of tenure, job assignments, performance assessment and advancement, training and opportunities, job prospects, social security, occupational safety and health

– Isolates employer, missed opportunities, ↓ competitive, bad reputation…

Environment Principle 7• Support precautionary approach to env. Challenges

– 1992 Rio Declaration If threat of serious or irreversible damage, use cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation

– What businesses can do?• Prevent environmental damage treatment costs more later

company image country image• Invest in sustainable production methods ↓ resources

depletion and env. degradation ↑ environment performance ↓ financial risk important consideration for insurers

• Invest in R&D to develop environmentally friendly products ↑ long-term benefits

Environment Principle 8• Initiate to promote environmental responsibility

– 1992 Rio Earth Summit Business and industry should ↑ self regulation through initiatives integrated into business planning, decision-making, openness and dialogue with employees and the public.

– To ensure environmental responsibility:• Re-define company vision, policies and strategies 3BL• Work with suppliers to ↑ environmental performance• Adopt voluntary charters to confirm acceptable behaviour /perf. • Measure and communicate progress as business practices,

including reporting against global operating standards • Ensure transparency and unbiased dialogue with stakeholders

Environment Principle 9• Encourage development and diffusion of

environmentally friendly technologies– That protects the environment, ↓ pollution, uses all

resources, recycles wastes and products and handles residual wastes in a more acceptable manner

• Establish a corporate or individual company policy• Inform stakeholders – env perf and benefits of the technology• Focus on R&D to ‘design for sustainability’. • Use Life Cycle Assessment to develop new tech and products• Employ Environmental Technology Assessment tools (EnTA) • Stipulate minimum environmental criteria for suppliers• Seek partners to obtain the “best available technology”

Anti-corruption Principle 10• Work against all forms of corruption

– Corruption• the abuse of entrusted power for private gain

– Extortion• When asking or demand is accompanied by threats that

endanger the personal integrity or the life of the person– Bribery, Transparency International:

• gift, loan, fee, reward… from a person to do something dishonest, illegal or a breach of trust

– Steps to fight corruption• Internal: Anti-corruption policies within organizations• External: Report corruption in the annual Communication• Collective: Join forces with industry peers, stakeholders…

Use of the LOGO

MillenniumDevelopmentGoals (MDG)

MillenniumDevelopmentGoals