PRINCIPLE TWO

Businesses should make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Complicity

Many agree that "complicity" is a difficult concept to appreciate and categorize, and understanding complicity in order to avoid complicity in human rights violations, represents an important challenge for business. As the dynamics between governments, companies, and civil society organizations is changing, so too does our understanding of when and how different organizations should take on responsibilities for human rights issues. The participation of the company need not actually cause the abuse.  Rather, the company’s assistance or encouragement has to be to a degree that, without such participation, the abuses most probably would not have occurred to the same extent or in the same way.

Accusations of complicity can arise in a number of contexts –

Direct Complicity

Occurs when a company actively assists in an abuse of human rights committed by others. An example of this is in the case where a company assists in the forced relocation of peoples in circumstances related to business activity.

Beneficial Complicity

Suggests that a company benefits directly from human rights abuses committed by someone else. For example, violations committed by security forces, such as the suppression of a peaceful protest against business activities or the use of repressive measures while guarding company facilities, are often cited in this context.

Silent complicity

Describes the way some human rights advocates might see the failure by a company to raise the question of systematic or continuous human rights violations in its interactions with the appropriate authorities. For example, inaction or acceptance by companies of systematic discrimination in employment law against particular groups on the grounds of ethnicity or gender could bring accusations of silent complicity.

Contemporary Issues

Human rights issues have become increasingly important as the nature and scope of business has changed. Different actors have different roles to play and it is important for business to be aware of the contemporary factors that have made human rights an organizational issue.

Globalization - the growth in private investment has witnessed companies expanding operations to countries previously untouched by global markets. In some instances, these countries have poor human rights records and/or the capacity of the state to address these issues is limited. In these cases the role of business in promoting and respecting human rights is particularly important.

Growth of civil society - in some instances the capacity of the state to address human rights issues has diminished. As a result, a steady alienation of people has occurred towards just those public institutions that were established to serve them. Non-governmental organizations of all types and sizes have grown to fill the void - progressively influencing both public policy and the market agenda. They include new human rights, labour and corporate accountability organizations.

Transparency and Accountability - the need for transparency in business practice has been highlighted both by globalization, the growth of civil society interests and some recent problems in the corporate sector. Advances in information technologies and global communications mean that companies can ill afford to conceal poor or questionable practices.

Crime – where an international crime is involved, complicity may arise where a company assisted in the perpetration of the crime, the assistance had a substantial effect on the perpetration of the crime and the company knew that its acts would assist the perpetration of the crime even if it did not intend for the crime to be committed.

State-owned enterprises – state-owned enterprises should be aware that because they are part of the state, they may have direct responsibilities under international human rights law.

Possible Actions by Business

An effective human rights policy will help companies avoid being implicated in human rights violations. In order to avoid such situations, companies may wish to consider the following:

• Has the company made a human rights assessment of the situation in countries where it does, or intends to do, business so as to identify the risk of involvement in human rights abuses and the company's potential impact on the situation?
• Does the company have explicit policies that protect the human rights of workers in its direct employment and throughout its supply chain?
• Has the company established a monitoring system to ensure that its human rights policies are being implemented?
• Does the company have an explicit policy to ensure that its security arrangements do not contribute to human rights violations? This applies whether it provides its own security, contracts it to others or in the case where security is supplied by the State.
• Does the company actively engage in open dialogue with human-rights organizations?

With respect to this last issue it is suggested that businesses:

• respect international guidelines and standards for the use of force (e.g. the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials);
• if financial or material support is provided to security forces, establish clear safeguards to ensure that these are not then used to violate human rights; and make clear in any agreements with security forces that the business will not condone any violation of international human rights laws;
• privately and publicly condemn systematic and continuous human rights abuses;
• continually consult within and outside the company with relevant stakeholders during both pre-investment and post-investment stages;
• raise awareness within the company of known human rights issues within the company’s sphere of influence;
• identify those functions within the firm that are most at risk of becoming linked to human rights abuses, possibly even at the pre-investment/project exploration and planning stage, and where there might be opportunities to advance human rights;
• conduct a human rights impact assessment consisting of an analysis of the functions of a proposed investment and the possible human rights impacts (intended and unintended) they may have on the community or region; and
• identify internal ‘functional risks’ in the post-investment situations.  This may involve looking at such functions as purchasing, logistics, government relations, human resource management, HSE (health, safety and environment), sales and marketing.

For more information about how to implement the Global Compact's human rights principles, including tools and resources, please see our Human rights issues page.

(Last update on 18 December 2008)