View previous stories
	Joint Civil Society Statement on Business and Human Rights by ICJ, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch & agencies   June 2011   Joint Civil Society Statement on Business and Human Rights to the 17th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.   The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to adopt a decision this week, before its current session ends on June 17, that will set the direction for its future work on business and human rights.   This represents a crucial opportunity for the Council to tackle the most pressing human rights challenges associated with transnational corporations and other businesses enterprises. Leading human rights organizations have proposed concrete, actionable steps the Council should take when it approves a new resolution on this topic.   Unfortunately however, the draft resolution before the Council falls far short of what is needed. We fear that if the Council adopts the resolution as it stands, it will have failed in its fundamental mission to advance the protection of human rights. The draft resolution suffers from three main shortcomings, each of which we urge the Council to address in order to ensure broad civil society support:   It focuses almost exclusively on the dissemination and implementation of the proposed Guiding Principles, which are incomplete in important respects and do not fully embody the core human rights principles contained in the UN “Protect, Respect, Remedy” Framework approved by the Council in 2008.   It lacks a mandate for the follow-on mechanism to examine allegations of business-related abuse and evaluate gaps in legal protections, an aspect stressed by civil society groups from around the world. Neither of these essential tasks is embedded in the proposed three-year follow-on mandate for a new special procedure, a working group of five experts.   It does not clearly recognize the Council’s unique role to provide global leadership in human rights by working toward strengthening of standards and creating effective implementation and accountability mechanisms. To facilitate the Council’s deliberations, we have elaborated further on each of these issues:   First, the draft’s central focus on the proposed Guiding Principles is misplaced.   Although the Guiding Principles are a starting point, on their own they cannot effectively tackle today’s main challenges. They do not constitute the comprehensive set of recommendations and guidance, as the draft resolution claims. The Guiding Principles are meant to serve as a guidance tool to implement the “Protect, Respect, Remedy”   Framework and will need to be developed further over time and/or complemented with other initiatives. Full implementation of the 2008 UN Framework will require more work on key issues such as accountability, the extraterritorial reach of laws and jurisdiction, and remedies for victims.   Second, the draft resolution limits the role of the new Working Group of five experts to a large extent to simply promoting and disseminating the Guiding Principles. The working group should instead be given a clear mandate to examine, assess and formulate recommendations with regard to current practice by governments and companies, including in relation to concrete cases and existing problems, in order to evaluate whether and how the UN Framework is being implemented, and in doing so it should refer to the Guiding Principles as well as to all applicable and relevant international responsibilities and obligations.   Third, the Special Representative on business and human rights, Professor John Ruggie, whose tenure has now ended after a six-year period, has correctly said that the UN “can and must lead intellectually and by setting expectations and aspirations.”   The follow-on mandate should work in this spirit, in order to close governance gaps brought about by globalization and substantially reduce business-related violations of human rights. This necessarily entails work to analyse protection gaps and options for further legal developments. Victims of business-related harm deserve no less.   The draft resolution’s lack of ambition for the follow on mandate is disappointing, and it remains unclear whether the proposed Working Group and Forum on Business and Human Rights, once in effect, will together provide a robust and credible mechanism for protecting rights and seeking solutions for people whose rights are abused in connection with business operations. That will depend in part on the extent to which these bodies help ensure adherence to and continued development of standards for business and human rights.   Finally, we wish to stress that it will be essential to select a set of experts for the new Working Group who have a strong expertise in human rights and a proven ability to engage with affected individuals and communities. Legal expertise and a thorough knowledge of business and human rights issues are also essential. Visit the related web page
	New Food Crisis “just one bad harvest away” Actionaid warns G20 by ActionAid International & agencies   June 2010   New Food Crisis “just One Bad Harvest Away” Actionaid Warns G20.   Anti-hunger group ActionAid has warned G20 ministers that the world is one bad harvest from a recurrence of the 2008 food crisis. It urged Agriculture Ministers meeting in Paris this week to take urgent action to stabilize food prices, including slashing biofuel production and mobilising a system of regional food reserves to help buffer the worst hit. High oil prices, an increase in biofuel production, commodity speculation and a lack of political leadership means that as many as 34 million people are at risk around the world from poverty and hunger if prices continue to rise.   With countries like the U.S. imposing biofuel mandates that are steering 40% of its corn crop to producing biofuels instead of feeding people, the era of food surpluses is over. The ministers must act now to reverse the mandates and subsidies that are driving biofuel production.   Marie Brill, ActionAid hunger expert said: “We are one harvest away from a major food crisis which will push tens of millions more poor people into hunger and destitution. The price of food staples like maize and wheat has doubled in the past year. We can`t wait until there are hungry children on our TV screens before we take action”   “Biofuels are not the answer to the climate and energy crises and our increasing addiction to them is robbing people of basic food security. The world cannot let some starve so that others can drive.”   ActionAid’s new report, A Second Global Food Crisis, highlights the most recent statistics on food production, food prices, and world hunger. We may not yet be in a crisis, but the price shocks of the last year have us walking a tightrope between tight markets and widespread hunger. Instead of receiving the support they need, the women farmers and smallholders who are the key to food security are paying more for basic food, and enduring increased poverty and stress because of it.   Direct evidence from the from two recent surveys by ActionAid staff in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America confirmed that many poor families are severely affected by the drop in food production due to weather conditions and high local prices. Among the 50 local areas surveyed in Africa poor families are eating less nutritious food – cutting out vegetables, milk and meat. In many places they only eat one meal a day.   The Agriculture Ministers will be considering a proposal from the World Food Program (WFP) for the coordination of regional food reserves, which would position emergency supplies near the most vulnerable people.   Sameer Dossani, ActionAid’s hunger campaign coordinator in Asia said:   “The G2O’s priority should be to save lives, time and money. Buffer reserves can prevent price volatility from becoming a crisis. To stop the food crisis, Agriculture Ministers must endorse the World Food Programme’s proposal to coordinate regional food reserves”.   June 2011   Food Price rises could "devastate the World"s Poor", by Rupert Neate.   After a 40% rise in global prices over the past year, droughts and floods threaten to seriously damage this year"s harvest.   Food prices will soar by as much as 30% over the next 10 years, the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have predicted.   Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, said that any further increase in global food prices, which have risen by 40% over the past year, will have a "devastating" impact on the world"s poor and is likely to lead to political unrest, famine and starvation. "People are going to be forced either to eat less or find other sources of income."   The joint UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and OECD report predicted that the cost of cereals is likely to increase by 20% and the price of meat, particularly chicken, may soar by up to 30%.   World food prices are already at a near-record high as droughts and floods threaten to seriously damage this year"s harvest. The report said the global harvest is in a "critical" condition and warned that prices will continue to rise until depleted stocks are rebuilt.   Global food prices hit a record high in February, prompting demonstrations across the world. The last extreme food price rise in 2008 led to riots in 20 countries across three continents.   Gurría called on world leaders to ban speculators from pushing up food prices. The G20 will meet in Paris next week to thrash out a deal aimed at imposing strict rules on trading in food commodities and policies that distort global food market.   French president Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly attacked hedge funds and specialised financial institutions for pushing up food prices. "Speculation, panic and lack of transparency have seen prices soaring," he said. "Is that the world we want? France is saying quite clearly it is not."   He compared the lack of regulation on food price speculators to lax regulation that drove financial markets to the "edge of the abyss" during the 2008 financial crisis.   The report predicted global agricultural production would grow at an annual rate of 1.7% a year over the next decade, compared with 2.6% the past 10 years. "Slower growth is expected for most crops," it said. "The global slowdown in projected yield improvements of important crops will continue to exert pressure on international prices." Visit the related web page
	View more stories