The United Nations Human Rights Council will wait until next month to
decide whether to extend for another year the mandate of John Ruggie,
the UN secretary-general’s special representative on business and
human rights.
Ruggie has asked for 12 months to complete his deliberations on how the
UN can deal with companies’ human rights impacts (EP8, issue 11).
Paul Eagle, business and human rights adviser at Amnesty International
UK, said an extra year would enable Ruggie to produce concrete
proposals.
Eagle said: ‘If his mandate is extended, we would encourage him to
recommend that global enforceable standards be developed to ensure
companies operate on a level playing field, and to counter the growing
criticism of voluntary initiatives.’
A joint statement last month from non-governmental organizations,
including Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of
Jurists, said Ruggie should use any extension ‘to analyse the patterns
of corporate abuses and their impacts on individuals and communities’.
see guest column
