DSC supports movement to protect human rights
John Ring, Democrats for Social Credit Party spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and candidate for Wigram, has announced
that he has signed the Statement of the Global Movement for a Binding Treaty on the Party’s behalf.
"The proposed treaty hasn't been named yet: its purpose is to ensure that transnational corporations are bound by
international law to respect human rights.
"There are already a number of international agreements that require governments to respect human rights, but many
so-called trade agreements give transnational corporations steadily increasing powers. Some corporations are more
powerful than governments, so it’s important to make sure that they too must respect human rights.
"There is already a long history of transnational corporations misbehaving, particularly in third world countries, and
there have been various proposals to regulate them - going back to 1972, when it was revealed that ITT had, together
with the CIA , plotted a coup in Chile.
"Since 1998 UNCTAD's Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has been examining the effects of
transnational corporations on human rights. In 2003 it proposed a set of norms for transnational corporations, but this
had no legal standing.
"In 2005, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Professor John Ruggie as the UN Special Representative of the
Secretary General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (SRSG).
This ultimately resulted in a set of guiding principles, which were in fact weaker than existing international law, and
were never taken any further.
"In September 2013 a group of countries issued a statement that “increasing cases of human rights violations and abuses
by some Transnational Corporations reminds us of the necessity of moving forward towards a legally binding framework to
regulate the work of transnational corporations and to provide appropriate protection, justice and remedy to the victims
of human rights abuses directly resulting from or related to the activities of some transnational corporations and other
businesses enterprises”.
"In November 2013 a statement along similar lines was signed by 140 civil society groups.
"As a result, an intergovernmental working party was established.
"The statement that the Democrats for Social Credit Party has signed is more recent, and much more detailed than the
earlier civil society statement.”
ENDS