OECD Watch’s recommendations on the framework proposed by the SRSG on Business and Human Rights
06 10 2009
The OECD Guidelines are at present one of the few mechanisms available to address the impacts of corporate misconduct. Though they can neither impose sanctions nor offer compensation, they provide a potentially valuable instrument for operationalising the “Protect, Respect, Remedy” framework developed by by John Ruggie, Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary General (SRSG) on Business and Human Rights.
This OECD Watch paper provides a contribution to the current international debate on business and human rights, with a specific focus on the relationship between the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the ‘Ruggie mandate’. The likely review of the OECD Guidelines in 2010 will provide an opportunity to strengthen human rights elements of the OECD Guidelines and contribute to the ‘operationalisation’ of the Ruggie framework.
In this briefing paper OECD Watch outlines its core recommendations related to each pillar of the SRSG’s framework, which the network believes could be considered by SRSG Ruggie for inclusion in
his final report, thereby providing authoritative guidance and direction to a revision of the OECD Guidelines. OECD Watch calls on SRSG Ruggie and his team to engage with the OECD, member states, and non-member adhering states in upgrading the Guidelines. At this stage it is crucial to create synergy towards a more effective and accountable business and human rights framework.
