Mr. Chairman, my name is Chip Pitts, and I am speaking on behalf of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Increasingly, abuses of workers fundamental rights are a global phenomenon. Child labor, forced labor, discrimination and violations of workplace health and safety standards are widespread, serious and systematic. The Lawyers Committee is committed to protecting the rights of workers recognized by international labor rights standards and believes the further development and subsequent implementation of the Draft Universal Human Rights Guidelines for Companies – although they might better be termed Fundamental "Principles" to be clearer about their authoritative nature -- will be a key tool in advocating reform.

The accountability of non-state actors is one of the most important frontiers of human rights protection. In this era of growing free trade, private businesses have gained increasing control over global, national and local economic policies. Workers, producing goods for the global market, drive the new international economy. Yet millions of people – the great majority of whom are young women – daily endure substandard working conditions. Workers are routinely subjected to twelve-hour working days, often six or seven days a week. Bathroom breaks are restricted and regulated, and travel beyond the factory’s fences is often strictly limited. Exposure to toxic chemicals, some carcinogenic, is one of the most frightening issues facing these workers.

Until recently, almost all global manufacturers took the view that they bore no responsibility for the conduct of their suppliers or contractors whose factories are often located in the developing world, particularly in Asia and Central America. Gradually, this is changing in some sectors (particularly apparel and footwear), and today more than one hundred major manufacturers have codes on this subject. But without a system of enforcement, the codes offer little real protection to the tens of millions of workers who regularly endure workplace abuses. There is an urgent need for the development of practical implementation mechanisms and for both state and non-state actors to assume enforcement responsibilities.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is convinced that a variety of stakeholders need to be engaged to address these issues. Consumers, local and international human rights organizations, labor unions, governments and international agencies, all have a role to play in ensuring that corporations are held accountable for enabling workers to assert and enforce their fundamental rights.

The draft Guidelines (which I shall take the liberty of calling "Principles") should continue to take into account the unique attributes of powerful transnational corporations. But since human rights may be violated by enterprises regardless of corporate form, and regardless of whether domestic or international, they should apply not just to transnational corporations but to domestic and national companies as well, and to businesses regardless of form. The Lawyers Committee accordingly believes it appropriate to change the name of the Working Group and its Draft to reflect a focus on "business enterprises" generally, and not just companies.

Regarding the adequacy of the extent to which the Draft Principles are legally binding, the Lawyers Committee would fully endorse those who have spoken in support of their ‘soft law’ approach. It offers the advantage of speed – which is important given the urgency of these issues arising from globalization and as compared with the much more uncertain, lengthy, cumbersome, and risky approach of seeking a more formal treaty on this subject. If such a treaty were ever achieved, it would likely come with significant reservations and only after years of controversy and politicization, where achieving even the bare minimum of existing international standards would be difficult. Perhaps even more importantly, the soft law approach in this controversial area allows for more comprehensive, aggressive, protective, and practical content. After all, some of the most foundational human rights documents began their life as precisely this sort of soft law, including the Universal Declaration itself.

In short, though it might seem paradoxical, to be overly ambitious and attempt to go much further than these already strong Principles would mean only delay and a lost opportunity. Instead, prompt adoption after circulating the Principles for much wider comment would build further momentum for and raise consciousness of the need for action on these issues. Such dissemination would undoubtedly yield further helpful clarifications and refinements, but the resulting product would represent a key step in enforcing broad binding standards on businesses and protecting against the downside of globalization. Imagine the positive benefits if this relatively quick route could be taken to placing the United Nations imprimatur on more detailed norms such as these. We would in short order have both (i) greater harmonization of existing international human rights standards for business, from the best of both public and private sources, (ii) raising consciousness about such norms via their availability for public use, and consequently (iii) a significant opportunity for real and meaningful progress in constraining the harm and furthering the positive human rights contribution that businesses can make.

2) The Working Group should be encouraged to focus further on the process for implementing the Principles, in particular developing practical methods of verifying that when they are adopted, they are indeed implemented. If Asbjorn Eide is willing, a further study on implementation would be highly desirable, in order to build on what’s been achieved so far. Two suggested areas for further research include:

1. An examination of methods used by NGOs and worker representative organizations to independently monitor implementation; and
2. The creation of a forum within the U.N. system that would provide a structure for information to be received from all stakeholders regarding the activities of corporations and their impact on the enjoyment of human rights.