CSRNYC

1. Declarations of human rights and conventions. Examples of declarations and conventions: UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Conventions. Examples of human rights: Freedom of speech, freedom of association, right to clean air and water. At the company level, these declarations are in the form of company mission statements (example: Google's "Don't Be Evil"). Pope Benedict XVI has said in his speech to the UN General Assembly that "promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security." Human rights, he said, must be the basis for ending poverty and war, not politics or military power. As if they collaborated on their timing, John Ruggie issued his report calling for more emphasis on voluntary multi-stakeholder approaches to corporate support of human rights as global legal and political systems struggle to catch up to private progress in the human rights area. The Ruggie report will be taken up at a UN human rights forum in Geneva in June.
2. Local laws and voluntary standards. Examples of laws and standards: minimum wage laws, living wage standards. The traditional way to ensure that rights are respected is to incorporate them into laws that are enforced. However, developing countries do not have enough resources to enforce rights and in many countries a "culture of compliance" is lacking. Many consumers and labor representatives are concerned about buying goods made under conditions that do not respect human rights. Large retailers (especially in Europe) are speaking out for consumers vis-a-vis large producers like food an beverage companies, mining companies and toy and apparel manufacturers. Voluntary standards may be created by or for an individual company (e.g., Mattel), by an industry (ICTI-CARE for the toy industry) or by a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI). An industry group such as retail stores (BSCI, a group of 120 European retailers that have agreed to audit the workplaces of two-thirds of their suppliers in at-risk countries) or jewelry (CRJP - mining to retail) may adopt one or more MSI standards. Voluntary standards are important in situations where local laws are inadequate or are not enforced. MSIs are implemented by accreditation agencies to ensure that certification bodies are enforcing the standards appropiately. Most MSI accreditation agencies are joined together under the ISEAL Alliance. The movement toward a law or standard as opposed to a declaration is toward something that is  enforceable by governments, by courts (via contracts) or by private withdrawal of purchases from consumers or companies. A law that is not enforced is irrelevant unless it becomes a voluntary standard. A voluntary standard is useful insofar as it can serve as a management benchmark and can be verified by an auditor. Many company and industry codes of conduct fail the test of relevance because they have no implementation or enforcement system - they have not advanced beyond the stage of  declarations.
3. Compliance and implementation systems. Examples of compliance or implementation or management systems:ISO systems (based on national standards) such as ISO 9001, 14001. Management systems for implementation of ISO standards or SA8000, FSC or other MSI standards.Without a management system, it is difficult for an auditor to have confidence that standards will be complied with between audits.
4. Verification systems.  Examples: government audits, NGO audits, independent private certification bodies (CBs). CBs including NGOs that conduct third-party audits against standards should be accredited to audit against these standards and should be subject to oversight by accreditation bodies. Such oversight must include the right to suspend or remove accreditation from CBs or NGOs.