LAST CALL for EMBLEMATIC CASES: Collective Report on Business and Human Rights to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC)

Please consider sharing a case for a collective report on business and human rights to the HRC by October 15, 2007

ESCR-Net’s Corporate Accountability Working Group would like to encourage your participation in a new initiative. This Collective Report on Business and Human Rights—to be presented directly to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), other UN bodies, and governments in the beginning of 2008—will attempt to re-frame the terms of the current international debate in favor of responding to the needs of the grassroots organizations and communities most affected, yet least heard and heeded, by endemic patterns of corporate abuse and the associated gaps in protection of human rights, including indigenous peoples’ and environmental rights. This will be done by illustrating a number of emblematic cases of human rights violations involving corporations. Based on these cases, the report will go on to provide clear recommendations to the UN and governments on how to strengthen corporate accountability for human rights, including through the development of appropriate standards and mechanisms related to corporate abuses. Our intention is to create a report which will be useful for both international, regional and national level advocacy and lobbying efforts. Envisioned as similar in structure and rigor to the Working Group’s November 2005 Joint NGO Submission on Human Rights and Extractive Industry (http://www.escr-net.org/actions_more/actions_more_show.htm?doc_id=430968), this civil society report will broaden its focus to challenge patterns of corporate abuse across sectors and regions.

We would be grateful for your participation in this initiative. As the report develops, we hope that contributors and WG members like yourself will help shape concrete recommendations and to strategize effective uses of this report in lobbying prior to the relevant Human Rights Council Session in the beginning of 2008. At this time, we are eager to receive any cases that may be appropriate for this report.

Due to our limited capacity to further research or analyze specific cases, we would ideally like to incorporate cases with some published documentation, such as NGO reports, press releases, legal documents or complaints, media accounts, or the like. We would also request that you briefly detail the key elements of the case in the provided Outline (below).

We are eager to receive the outline(s) of your case(s) by October 15, 2007. Please send the outline(s) and whatever additional case materials to Niko Lusiani at nlusiani@escr-net.org. You can also send them by post to: Niko Lusiani, ESCR-Net, 211 East 43rd Street, #906, New York, NY 10017, USA. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to visit our website to learn more about our work: http://www.escr-net.org .

We look forward to your contributions and ongoing input.