‘Stop companies’ overseas abuse’ government told
15 December 2009
NEWS PEG: Wednesday, 16 December 2009 MPs, peers criticise British government over UK firms' overseas human rights abuse
Firms watchdog call over MPs, peers concern
The British government today faces pressure to establish a new independent watchdog to police UK companies abusing human rights. The pressure comes from the anti-poverty charity War on Want as MPs and peers criticised ministers' failure to tackle firms which commit human rights violations abroad.
In the report of its inquiry, the joint select committee on human rights agreed the government has no coherent strategy and "gives undue priority to voluntary initiatives".
War on Want senior campaigns officer Simon McRae said: "British companies continue to commit serious human rights abuses across the world. Yet the government's only response is to come up with voluntary initiatives which companies are free to ignore. When will ministers take real action to hold these companies to account?"
The committee launched the report only hours after the charity handed into Downing Street over 16,000 names of people who demand that British prime minister Gordon Brown regulates stores which abuse garment workers. War on Want has published research which shows that Bangladeshi workers making clothes for Primark, Tesco and Asda toil up to 80 hours a week and earn as little as half a living wage.
The MPs and peers singled out for criticisms the government's resent consultation over private military companies, which proposes a voluntary code of conduct for the industry, despite hundreds of reports of human rights abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq.
War on Want is spearheading the campaign for tough legislation over mercenaries, including a ban on their use in combat and combat support.
Last week the charity attacked the government's voluntary guidance on supermarkets' trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements and called for a total ban on sales. War on Want says UK companies are complicit in human rights abuses committed against the Palestinian people.
The charity's evidence of human rights abuses committed by UK corporations submitted to the committee also included:
- British mining corporations operating in conflict zones overseas. The abuses highlighted include violence and intimidation of local people by paramilitaries and police, arbitrary arrests, physical violence, extrajudicial killings, destruction of houses and the forced displacement of local communities.
- UK banks' financing of the arms trade, with many high street banks supporting the arms industry, despite their claims to be acting responsibly.
- Human rights abuses suffered by workers supplying goods for high street retailers. Besides garment workers, these include flower and wine workers supplying British supermarkets. The abuses concerned include physical and verbal harassment, severe breaches of health and safety standards, intimidation and imprisonment of trade unionists, denial of the right to protest, excessive working hours and poverty pay.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
- The committee's report encourages the UK government to explore the proposal for a commission for business, human rights and the environment.
- War on Want plays a leading role in the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) coalition, an alliance of civil society groups, voluntary groups and trade unions.
- The charity's submission to the committee inquiry is at http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/UKJointCommittee
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