"Economic sector looks at natural resources simply as raw material for production of the commodities which it plans to sell. They do not care if they extract too much or if they cause environmental disasters - to them it is simply a source of raw materials and has that much economic value only. Moreover people's rights are not really well considered -- for example people are often given wages which are even lower than the minimum wages" said Quimpo.
"We need to make closer integration of social, economic and environmental pillars a reality! We need to factor-in when discussing economic aspects what extracting natural resources will actually mean in terms of social and environmental impacts."
Corporations evade responsibilities
Quimpo added: "Neoliberal economic policies such as of privatization are geared up to strengthen and enhance the profit-driven global economy. As long as the general profit-driven economic framework rules it is not possible to hold big corporations accountable for social, economic and environmental impacts they have in people's lives. Corporations evade responsibilities as they do not want to be held accountable. Civil society has to make this change happen so that economic, environmental and social pillars are truly integrated in context of post-2015 sustainable development agenda."
Rights-based approach has to be central!
Abantee Nurul an advocate in Supreme Court of Bangladesh who works with Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK) shared with Citizen News Service (CNS) that "Environmental issues are very important for Bangladesh as in the last few years it has been increasingly impacted by environmental disasters. Labour related issues also need to be addressed by post 2015 development framework. Many people get illegally trafficked from Bangladesh to countries such as Thailand. In Bangladesh labour cost is very cheap. Government, readymade garment business owners and multinational corporations are not complying with laws related to safety and security of the labourers. So this needs to change! If there is a global binding treaty on business and human rights, then corporations would be bound by laws to give higher wages to labourers at par with global standards and would be held accountable for violating safety and security of labourers."
"Over all in post-2015 development discussions, there is no specific mention of human rights. There should be a specific mention of human rights including women's rights. Approach to the sustainable development should be rights-based - it is presently welfare based and not rights-based!" said Nurul.
It is important to note that as the processes to shape the post-2015 development agenda move forward, there are other processes too moving ahead which may help strengthen some of the issues raised in these discussions too. For example, civil society consultations are being held to help shape a possible global binding treaty on business and human rights. APWLD along with International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) had organized the Asia Pacific consultation for such a global binding treaty earlier this month. In June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to elaborate a binding instrument "to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises".
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