IBFAN Participates in UN Human Rights and Business Consultation

On 4-5 October 2009, IBFAN participated in a consultation held by the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie (Special Representative). This consultation was part of a larger mandate of the UN Human Rights Council, which requires the Special Representative to explore the issues and challenges regarding the intersection between business and human rights. IBFAN felt that its presence at the consultation was significant in order to tell our story of the baby food industry's continued violations and disrespect of the International Code and relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

We provided a submission for the consultation detailing the baby food industry's undue influence over policy-making and implementation through unrestricted lobbying (at both the UN and Member States) and the trend toward Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). We provided specific examples, including GAIN for which Danone is a listed partner and the Global Compact for which Nestlé is a participant.  We also made an intervention during the consultation explaining that the baby food industry has managed to create and perpetuate conflicts between international human rights standards and national law through its lobbying tactics and various forms of PPPs. We provided concrete recommendations for the Special Representative, including advocating for and assisting in the development and implementation of effective and enforceable policies to ensure transparency and fairness and to manage conflicts of interest in all policy-making and implementation forums.

It is difficult to predict what will come out of this consultation; or the efforts of the Special Representative in general. As usual, the private sector was represented in strong force (However, there was no indication that the baby food industry was present).  We are concerned that as the co-architect of the Global Compact, and now the Special Representative, Professor Ruggie will lend favour to voluntary codes and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives over effective and enforceable legal mechanisms to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations.

The Special Representative must submit his final report to the Human Rights Council by early 2011. He will be holding on-line consultations from now until the end of his mandate, and will be conducting face-to-face consultations on key issues that have yet to be announced.   We hope that our recommendations will be considered and included in the Special Representative's final report.   We will continue to monitor the work of the Special Representative and participate in relevant consultations.