LEADERS of faith communities have urged the European Union to hold Western companies to account for environmental damage and human-rights violations in the global South, by strengthening a planned EU directive on corporate responsibility.
“People, not profit, need to be at the core of future policies. . . We call on decision-makers to make the EU a global leader in the struggle against corporate abuse,” the statement says. It was signed by more than 160 mostly Christian leaders, and released by the International Co-operation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE).
“Unregulated corporate activities have been linked to human-rights violations, harassment and murders of human-rights defenders, the disruption of communities and irreparable damage to biodiversity, whereas soft law initiatives based on voluntary commitment keep the status quo.”
The signatories were responding to the EU’s draft Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive, which was approved by the European Parliament last month and will require large firms to monitor their supply chains for abuses.
The leaders said that the draft Directive followed “years of campaigning” by faith groups and civil-society organisations, but still offered “insufficient answers to those seeking justice” and seeking an end to “harmful corporate activities”.
“We come together from different faiths united in our common effort to care for creation,” the signatories say. They include Roman Catholic bishops and Religious in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as Anglican, Protestant, Quaker, and Jewish representatives.
“We urge the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Council to champion a strong Directive, to defend the good elements, while substantially improving it.”
If finally adopted next year, the Directive will give the EU’s 27 member states two years to impose corporate sustainability and due-diligence obligations on all high-turnover and medium-sized businesses.
The Corporate Europe Observatory, which monitors lobbying on EU legislation, warned last year, however, that the draft had already been “severely watered down” to enable businesses to “avoid remedying harms and compensating victims”.
In their statement, the religious leaders say that the Directive’s provisions on “civil liability and access to justice” need strengthening, together with its coverage of “environmental risks and impacts”.
They say that the current draft requires only “minimal action” on climate change, in a “painful affront” to those already suffering its “lethal impacts”. They urge EU member states to co-operate with a parallel Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations, now under preparation at the United Nations.
“Stakeholder consultation is missing from this proposal as an integral part of the due-diligence process,” the statement says.
“The proposal also fails to acknowledge the specific impact human-rights abuses have on women and indigenous people, and the role human-rights and environmental defenders play in protecting people and the planet.”
Christian organisations worldwide have repeatedly urged measures to protect community rights and livelihoods from aggressive Western business practices.
In a 2020 declaration, more than 230 RC bishops demanded “mandatory supply-chain due diligence” and reparations for “violence and suffering”. In a 2021 YouGov poll, 86 per cent of EU citizens agreed that companies should be held accountable for human-rights and environmental abuses.
A CIDSE press release, describing the latest statement as a “powerful show of solidarity”, says that faith communities place “high expectations” on European decision-makers to create “a strong EU law aligned with international standards”.
The CIDSE’s secretary-general, Josianne Gauthier, told the online EU Observer that several countries, including France and Germany, had “gone to great lengths” to reduce the “scope and effectiveness” of the planned Directive.
Many faith leaders, she said, had witnessed the “brutal impacts” of unregulated corporate activities on their communities worldwide. “A faith-based world outlook allows us to see the earth as more than the sum of the parts from which profit can be extracted.
“Part of our European political class lacks both proximity to those living the reality of corporate abuse and a view of the world that goes beyond profit-margins projections. . . The ongoing discussion offers politicians the opportunity to show their religious and moral values are not merely accessories to display just before election time.”