Berlin – Bread for the World, BUND, IG Metall and MISEREOR are calling for greater political efforts to enforce human rights and good working conditions worldwide as well as to protect the environment and climate. A joint declaration adopted today states: “Corporate due diligence obligations must not be left to the good will of entrepreneurs; they must be placed on a legally binding basis.”
According to the four organizations, the draft of the so-called EU Supply Chain Act (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) urgently needs to be improved in the ongoing legislative process in order to effectively ban human rights violations and environmental destruction from companies’ value chains. In addition, the signatories expect clear and active support from the Federal Government for the negotiations on an international agreement on business and human rights within the framework of the UN Human Rights Council.
They call on German industrial companies and politicians to recognize and comply with human and labor rights standards as well as the protection of the environment and climate in all measures to extract raw materials. Industry and politics should require this from suppliers and customers and provide them with the best possible support in implementing it. Certification systems should not replace a comprehensive duty of care in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. As announced in the coalition agreement, the federal government urgently needs to create better regulations for a sustainable circular economy in order to effectively reduce the demand for primary raw materials.
Jörg Hofmann, First Chairman of IG Metall: “Employers must take responsibility for compliance with labor and human rights in their value chain – with noticeable consequences for violations. Politicians must create clear legal regulations for this – also at EU and UN level. Human rights take precedence over profit maximization. There can be no two opinions on this.”
Pirmin Spiegel, Managing Director of Misereor: “The suspension of the reporting requirements for the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act proposed by Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck would also send the wrong signal with regard to the negotiations on the EU Supply Chain Act. Public transparency is not an excessive bureaucratic burden for companies, but is essential to protecting human rights and the environment. The global protection of human rights is particularly necessary in times of crisis.”
Antje von Broock, BUND Managing Director: “The federal government must ensure that companies disclose and reduce the climate impact of their value chains. Simply saying that companies should submit climate plans in the future in accordance with the EU Supply Chain Act is not enough. There needs to be a legal obligation to implement it, which the government still rejects. But only with this legal obligation can greenwashing finally be stopped.”
Dagmar Pruin, President Bread for the World, with a view to the “Critical Raw Materials Act”: “The law on critical raw materials currently being discussed in the EU focuses solely on the economic interests of the EU and thus poses the risk that the countries in the Global South continue to be reduced to the role of raw material supplier. This makes their own ecological transformation more difficult. The federal government must advocate for a globally fair raw materials policy as part of the trilogue negotiations.”
The joint declaration will be presented today in Berlin as part of the conference “Human rights and environmental protection in global value chains and raw material extraction”. There, the top representatives of the four organizations will discuss with representatives from politics and business as well as guests from countries in the global south. Bread for the World, BUND, IG Metall and MISEREOR have been involved for years in the “Initiative Supply Chain Act”, a civil society alliance of more than 140 organizations for the enforcement of human rights and environmental standards worldwide.
The full joint statement can be found here.