UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE CALLS ON EU NOT TO "IMPEDE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS" ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND BUSINESS - 2009-04-15

Professor John Ruggie, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, will tell the European Parliament tomorrow that the "stale" EU debate on voluntary versus mandatory approaches to responsible business is threatening to hold-up innovative solutions, and could even increase the risks which European based companies and their shareholders face.

At the invitation of Richard Howitt MEP, the European Parliament Rapporteur on Corporate Social Responsibility, Professor John Ruggie will outline to the European Parliament's Human Rights Sub-Committee hearing that "business as usual isn't good enough for anyone, including business itself".

Professor Ruggie has been tasked by the UN Secretary General to bring forward concrete proposals by 2011 on how business will protect human rights in its activities. He will also receive the first copy of a new European Parliament commissioned study by Professor Jan Wouters of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, which recommends the EU act to bring forward clear legal obligations for corporations as well as effective ways to hold them accountable, including mandatory reporting on human rights performance, and clear benchmarks on socially responsible practices.

Richard Howitt MEP, European Parliament Rapporteur on Corporate and Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Sub-Committee stated - "Professor Ruggie has pointed out that the EU's current tack of giving businesses only a voluntary steer does not give our European companies the real guidance they need to protect human rights and avoid their businesses and shareholders from being anyway involved or complicit with human rights abuses along their supply chain.

"For the sake of European jobs, European business reputations and the human rights of people across the world, who can be the hidden victims of corporate abuses, this is one gaping hole which the European Union needs to fill."

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