reports to improve factory conditions – with mixed results, at best. In the long run, it can’t make sense to leave it to Apple and Walmart to guard the rights of factory workers halfway round the world. “We must work harder to promote human rights, not just respect them,” Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, said. Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé, pointed with pride to the work that Nestlé is doing to help improve the lives of 750,000 farmers in its supply chains. But as Sharan Burrow, the feisty general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, noted pointedly, hundreds of millions of poor workers are not fortunate enough to be associated with companies like Unilever. “Today’s global supply chains are characterised by exploitation,” she said. Burrow urged big companies to work with labour groups and NGOs to press for higher minimum wages in emerging markets. In Cambodia, for instance, the minimum wage has just been raised from $100 to $128 per month, but only after a long campaign during which militant workers clashed with police. Even if responsible companies voluntarily agree to pay more, Burrow said, they can be undercut by less scrupulous competitors. Only the governments can establish a set of rules that apply to all. Put another way, one of the most important things companies can do to promote human rights is to become more active in the public-policy arena, by lobbying governments to respect human rights – pushing for press and internet freedom in China, say, or a higher minimum wage in Vietnam. The trouble is, not many companies are willing to lobby for more regulation, according to Georg Kell, executive director of the UN Global Compact, a corporate sustainability initiative. With a few exceptions, he said, “the big industry associations are still fighting old ideological battles,” opposing any interference with unfettered markets. What’s more, he said, it’s difficult to get CEOs of big companies to cooperate, even around human rights issues. “It’s not in the mindset of these highly competitive alpha guys.” That said, cooperative efforts are emerging. The most promising is in Bangladesh, where, in response to the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, garment brands and retailers formed a pair of coalitions, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, to improve factory conditions. Equally important, the US government, the European Commission, the International Labour Organization and the Bangladeshi government have signed a sustainability compact aimed at, among other things, strengthening labour laws there. The goal is to duplicate the kinds of government institutions and processes that work reasonably well, most of the time, to protect the human rights of workers in the US and the EU. Business has a role to play. But as Hina Jilani, a veteran Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist, reminds us: “It is the fundamental obligation of states to protect citizens against exploitation and degradation.” Unit 11, exercise 25 Student B It’s 100 seconds to midnight The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been updating its ‘Doomsday Clock’ since 1947. The clock conveys how close we are to destruction (or ‘midnight’) and identifies the ways that humans could obliterate themselves. In 2020 the clock moved closer to midnight than ever before. The existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have intensified in recent years because of a threat multiplier: the corruption of the information ecosphere on which democracy and public decision-making depend. The Covid-19 pandemic is a wake-up call. Disinformation has led leaders and citizens alike to reject scientific advice – with tragic results. Unchecked internet disinformation could have even more drastic consequences in a nuclear crisis, perhaps leading to a nuclear war that ends world civilization. Disinformation efforts across communications systems are at this moment undermining responses to climate change in many countries. However, we see positive developments. The new US government acknowledges climate change as a threat and supports international cooperation and sciencebased policy and has offered to extend the New START arms control agreement with Russia. 1 Where is the clock and what is its purpose? 3 What reasons do people have to be slightly optimistic? 2 What areas of risk affect the time shown on the clock? 4 Mark any points you agree and disagree with. 211 A Activities Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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