In most corporate boardrooms, if you suggest focusing on human rights as a community investment strategy don’t be surprised if you are met with deathly silence or an uncomfortable shuffling of papers. But if you push the common path of education, the environment and youth you will most likely have instant buy-in.
Community investment is the philanthropic arm of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and goes beyond internal CSR strategy and CSR reporting. The aim of community investment is to support and ‘invest’ in the communities that support a business (check out MTV Exit, MTV Asia’s anti human trafficking program in collaboration with AusAID and USAID). Companies that pursue genuine community investment are doing so because they want to, and because they see benefit in doing so. However there seems to be a limited number of companies that engage in human rights as part of their community investment.
On a personal level, most of us are shocked by human rights abuses of any kind but particularly, for example, the trafficking of children or slave labour. So, why do most companies freeze like a deer in headlights when it comes to including these issues in community investment?
From my perspective the lack of engagement with human rights in community investment has to do with, among others, two things:
- It is more to do with a lack of know-how to navigate the complexity of human rights advocacy than it has to do with lack of empathy.
For example, if a shoe company sourcing from China wanted to focus on slave labour, but has heard reports of local Chinese officials protecting sweatshops, could the company’s business relationship in China be affected? How do you deal with the cultural, political and development nuances that feed into human rights abuses, such as rapid industrialisation, loss of land and poverty? In this instance, companies need to partner with local or regional organisations that deal with slave labour on a daily basis. This way they have access to experts who know the local environment and can work to develop risk averse strategies and campaigns against slave labour in China.
- There is a perspective that governments and international law should protect human rights, not companies and that human rights are bigger than CSR or community investment. I disagree. The same argument could be made for the environment, education or any other development issue but there is a plethora of community investment projects focusing on these issues, and human rights should be included.
There is no denying that human rights are an extremely complex, sensitive and globalised issue and any community investment in the area needs to be approached with diplomacy. But throwing human rights in the ‘too hard basket’ is not very socially responsible.
Companies wanting to include human rights in their CSR agenda should:
- Start globally. Openly voicing a company’s concern about human rights abuses sends a strong message and is a step in the right direction.
- Work locally. Work with trusted partners who specialise in human rights to develop effective risk averse programs that help navigate the local complexities of human rights.
- Focus on key and specific issues and be clear on how your company can contribute. No one can solve the myriad of human rights issues, but focused initiatives can make a difference.
- Be bold and break the silence. Consumers are looking for reasons to be loyal.
Cross posted to WhyDev.org
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