The Australian Financial Review

Tuesday 22 January, 2002

Page 47 Opinion

Human Rights - is it Any of Your Business?

By Richard Boele and Nicolette Boele

The seemingly divergent worlds of business and human rights are converging at an unprecedented rate -- driven by a global trend towards increasing expectations of business.

In the past year, a growing number of ethical screening-questionnaires landed on the desks of corporate Australia.

This year, ASX-listed companies will be asked by their major shareholders to declare the extent to which they take human rights considerations into account.

This will be one of the most immediate results of an amendment to the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 that comes into force in March. It requires funds to declare, in product disclosure statements, the extent to which labour standards or environmental, social or ethical considerations are taken into account in the selection, retention or realisation of the investment.

This is big news for Amnesty International and even bigger news for any Australian publicly listed company with a super fund or other investment product provider as a shareholder. It is a matter of when, not if, those businesses will be asked about how they account for human rights.

The FSR Act amendment is only one of a growing number of significant developments that are driving Australian businesses to consider human rights impacts. Others include the growth of socially responsible investment, global campaigns targeting specific industries, developing international human rights law and increasing social expectations affecting reputations and brands.

While the social licence to operate is becoming harder to obtain and maintain, considerable work is being done on how business can be held to account under international human rights law. A draft United Nations Human Rights Guidelines for Business Enterprises is already well on the way.

Legislation and regulation aside, progressive business has started considering the damage that a poor human rights record can do to a company’s reputation.

For most people human rights and business is about supply-chain labour rights – a big issue for retailers with brand names. Last year, cocoa manufacturers internationally agreed to a code of conduct for child labour after a hugely successful Save the Children campaign, despite initially denying it was occurring.

Sectors like mining are also recognising that a human rights approach is essential to secure core business – for miners, it is access to resources. In Latin America alone, an estimated 80 per cent of future mineral exploration will be on indigenous land.

The challenge of working with complex sets of human stakeholders can be made more manageable by referring to international standards.

Amnesty International Australia has one of the longest-established business groups, comprising of individual members from various sectors of the business community.

Recent projects include Just Business, a framework document developed for Australian businesses. A follow-up for the investment sector, Just Investment will be released soon.

For those companies and managers looking to ensure that their convergence with the human rights world is as smooth as possible, these are compulsory reading.

Richard Boele and Nicolette Boele are members of the national business team of Amnesty International Australia.