The UN Subcommission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has approved last year the UN Norms on the
responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business
enterprises with regard to human rights.
Governments, business, Trade Unions and NGOs have expressed their views on these UN Norms for business. At the moment the Norms are on the agenda of the 2004 meeting of the Human Rights’
Commission from 15 March till 23 April.
With this Public Debate on May 12th we want to raise awareness
about the UN Norms, highlight the outcomes of the Human Rights’
Commission meeting and discuss the arguments of governments,
NGOs, business, political parties and Trade Unions concerning this first set of international human rights norms that specifically address the responsibilities of business.
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Het ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit (LNV), LTO Nederland en de Nederlandse Voedingsmiddelen Industrie VAI reiken in 2004 voor de tweede keer de prijs ter stimulering van maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen (MVO) uit. De vijf genomineerden zijn nu bekend. De jury heeft meer dan 35 inzendingen beoordeeld.
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SRI World Group, Inc., a leading provider of social investment and corporate responsibility information services, today announced the launch of OneReport (www.one-report.com). This new global electronic reporting network enables companies to more efficiently report their social, environmental, economic and corporate governance information to investors, the financial community and other stakeholders. Over 50 multi-national companies from around the world, including 22 Fortune 100 companies, participated in the development of OneReport.
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(Gepubliceerd in Trouw op 17 april 2004).
-Duurzame Daadkracht – Actieprogramma duurzame ontwikkeling’ heet de nota waarover vijf kamercommissies, vier ministers en één staatssecretaris op maandag 19 april de hele dag met elkaar in debat gaan. De uitkomsten van de wereldtop over duurzame ontwikkeling in 2002 in Johannesburg worden in deze nota vertaald in een internationale en een nationale strategie.
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The global food and beverages industry has merely average performance on social and environmental sustainability, according to the latest corporate responsibility industry report released by Oekom Research, a Munich-based sustainability rating firm. The 16 companies that qualified for comprehensive “Inside” Ratings (16 other companies with inadequate transparency or sustainability performance received more cursory “Outside” Ratings) earned an average grade of C, on a scale from A+ to D-.
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420 individiuals from across the globe contributed their voices to the recently concluded Structured Feedback Process (SFP). In an effort to gain feedback on many aspects of the 2002 Guidelines from a diverse array of stakeholders in all global regions GRI designed this SFP to include those organisations that report using the Guidelines and also those that use data from sustainability reports.
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Once again, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, a global socially responsible investment (SRI) research firm, has produced a report demonstrating the financial value of environmental, social, and corporate governance best practice. The most recent report, released earlier this week, assesses 26 electric power producers in the US. The electric power sector is particularly exposed to the risks of regulation and litigation, as it emits approximately one third of the air pollution in the country.
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As the stereotype goes, business students are supposed to be single-minded in their career goals: making money, more money and still more money.
But don’t tell that to Daron Horwitz, who spent his spring break in Iraq — visiting schools that will be helped by a nonprofit group he and a small group of students formed at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
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(Dit artikel van Eveline Lubbers is verschenen in Kleintje Muurkrant nr 390, 16 april 2004)
De tegenvallende gas- en oliereserves veroorzaakten grote onrust onder de aandeelhouders. In enkele weken ging 10 miljard euro van de beurswaarde van Shell in rook op. Geheel in de geest van deze tijd -waar de aandelenkoers is gekoppeld aan reputatie en charisma- richt de kritiek zich op topman Phill Watts. Hij wist de publieke arena te mijden tot bij de presentatie van de kwartaalcijfers, en dacht daar weg te komen met een deemoedig excuus over de gemaakte fouten. Shell dreigt terug te vallen in de arrogante houding, die het concern decennia lang eigen was.
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(Gepubliceerd in Het Financieele Dagblad van 10 april 2004).
Nederlandse bedrijven in India brengen maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen ‘mondjesmaat in de praktijk’. Multinationals hebben vaak wel een officieel beleid voor verantwoord ondernemen in ontwikkelingslanden, maar ze laten de uitvoering daarvan over aan de Indiase dochteronderneming en dat levert niet het gewenste resultaat op. Dat blijkt uit het onderzoek ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in India – Policy and practices of Dutch companies’ in opdracht van de Landelijke India Werkgroep.
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High performing businesses show a strong correlation between CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities and stronger performance in terms of productivity and profitability than other businesses, according to new analysis conducted by The Work Foundation and The Virtuous Circle. The report, Achieving High Performance: CSR at the Heart of Business, published on 25 March 2004, argues that there is now a sufficient weight of empirical evidence to indicate that building CSR activities into the heart of business strategy leads to higher productivity and profitability.
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Three European firms today beat 26 other national Award winning organisations from 15 European countries when they received awards for excelling at reporting on the social and environmental impacts of their activities. Awards winners in the eighth year of the European Sustainability Reporting Awards (ESRA) were Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark) and Aalborg Portland A/S (Denmark). Slibverwerking Noord-Brabant (Netherlands) received a Commendation.
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