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©The
Star (Used by permission)
by Shaila Koshy
KUALA LUMPUR: A key issue for discussion at the 13th Asia Pacific Forum meeting
of National Human Rights Institutions beginning today is the corporate
accountability of the 78,000 transnational corporations worldwide.
The four-day meeting, hosted by Suhakam, will also explore the ability of
governments to regulate activities that violate human rights.
The full members of the Forum (APF) currently comprises the human rights
institutions of Afghanistan, Australia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
Timor Leste.
Following the forum last year in Sydney, APF councillors had tasked its Advisory
Council of Jurists (ACJ) to consider the issue under a reference on “Human
Rights, Corporate Accountability and Government Responsibility”.
After conferring with APF members and other stakeholders on the first day of the
meeting, the ACJ is expected to present its deliberations for discussion on the
last day.
The terms of reference adopted by the APF council in 2007 for the ACJ to
deliberate include, among others are:
> THE basis for attributing human rights responsibilities to transnational
corporations under international human rights law;
> THE obligations of a state to regulate transnational corporations with regard
to human rights violations within its territorial jurisdiction;
> THE usefulness of the concept of corporate complicity in international crimes
to protect human rights; and
> THE existing jurisdictional barriers in enforcing human rights obligations
against corporations.
Citing the 2002 World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (Unctad), the APF website said 29 of the 100 largest
economies in the world were transnational corporations.
“In the same 2002 report, Unctad estimated that there were approximately 65,000
transnational corporations with 850,000 foreign affiliates and 54 million
employees.
“Their sales, of approximately US$19tri (RM61.8tri), represented approximately
11% of the world’s combined gross domestic product.
“With such economic power, it is clear that the activities of transnational
corporations can have far-reaching social and political consequences,
particularly in states with poor governance and limited institutional capacity
to formulate, implement and enforce relevant laws and regulations,” it said.
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Circular No 297/2008
