(June 2000) -- Human Rights Watch welcomes the initiative by the United Nations Secretary General to urge transnational corporations to operate in a socially responsible manner , including efforts by corporations to promote and protect human rights in their business operations and other areas of influence. Human Rights Watch's mission is to protect and advance human rights, and our research and advocacy on corporate responsibility is shaped by these concerns alone. Human Rights Watch takes no position on trade or development policies per se. But in an interconnected world where very large and influential transnational corporations compete for finite resources and new markets, human rights and economic activity are increasingly intertwined. Human Rights Watch believes that increased economic activity without respect for human rights can lead to the marginalization of certain sections in society and if economic or social conditions worsen, the prospect for increased public dissatisfaction with government and hostility towards foreign investors can occur because the government and its business partners are seen as mutually reinforcing actors in a situation that does not benefit society as a whole. This can lead also to further human rights violations because of a general climate of instability that can include abuses in the context of civil unrest or conflict, or because the government chooses to adopt repressive measures to suppress any opposition to its rule, or both. Such situations are not conducive to increased respect for human rights or a stable business environment.
We encourage businesses to contribute to the respect of human rights. Recognizing that they can muster resources and influence far beyond the means of any individual person, and in some cases, beyond that of the state, Human Rights Watch urges corporations to be a force for improving respect for human rights through a broad range of actions in the course of their operations and in the countries where they are located. Such measures include: emphasizing commitment to the rule of law which underlies respect of human rights; developing policies and programs to ensure that human rights are integrated into business operations; and ensuring respect for the human rights, including labor rights, of their employees.
Human Rights Watch works to end a broad range of abuses, including summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention, restrictions on the freedom of association, assembly and religion, violations of due process, and discrimination on racial, gender, ethnic and religious grounds. The standards we use are universal civil and political rights as embodied in international laws and We seek to curb abuses regardless of whether the victims are well-known political activists or those of lesser visibility such as factory workers, peasant farmers, undocumented migrants, women forced into prostitution, street children, or domestic We also address such war-related abuses as indiscriminate shelling or the use of rape or as weapons of war-no matter which side in a conflict is responsible.
