Amnesty International Business and Human Rights Program

Amnesty International maintains that all companies have a direct responsibility to respect human rights in their own operations.  The organization also believes that these companies have a wider legal and moral responsibility to use their influence to defend human rights wherever they are threatened.  These basic rights include the right to protest and to seek reparation from governments and/or corporations for environmental damage that has led to a loss of habitat and livelihood, illness, or death.  Amnesty seeks both to support and to protect environmental activists through its Corporate Action Network.

Another basic right—the right to freedom of expression and information on the Internet—has recently come under siege in China where several U.S. companies stand accused of cooperating with the Chinese government in its attempt to censor search engines, email, and web and blog content.  To try to prevent such occurrences in the future, Amnesty joined (in January 2007) a multi-stakeholder initiative comprising academics, socially responsible investment firms, and Internet companies to develop a set of voluntary principles to promote and respect human rights on the Internet.

Amnesty International’s SHARE POWER Campaign attempts to effect change in the business practices of corporations through grassroots shareholder activism and by urging non-shareholder citizens to remind CEOs and Directors that they will be held accountable for human rights infringements in the countries in which they operate.  To this end, Amnesty subscribes to the UN Norms for Business, a set of principles that represents a major step forward in the establishment of a common global framework for understanding the human rights responsibilities of businesses.  

Amnesty is also a supporter of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), which allows foreign victims of human rights abuses to sue perpetrators in United States courts. Amnesty believes that the ACTA (recently upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain) may be the only means by which some people in developing nations can achieve justice. Finally, to further the goal of achieving transparency regarding working conditions worldwide, Amnesty has joined with several like-minded organizations (including EarthRights International, Friends of the Earth, Global Exchange, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club) to create the highly successful International Right to Know (IRTK) movement. 

In support of Amnesty International’s multi-faceted Business and Human Rights concerns and efforts, Group 30 members write letters to corporate leaders as well as to foreign and domestic government officials, with copies to the appropriate ambassadors and consuls general.  

For more information:

AIUSA Business and Human Rights