Brussels

Today, eight national parliaments launched a “green card” initiative at European Union (EU) level to ensure corporate accountability for human rights abuses.

Prompted by Member of the French Parliament Danielle Auroi, the initiative calls for a duty of care towards individuals and communities from EU-based companies whose human rights and local environment are affected by their activities.

The “green card” is a form of enhanced political dialogue through which EU national parliaments can jointly propose to the European Commission new legislative or non-legislative initiatives, or changes to existing legislation.

Amnesty International, European Coalition for Corporate Justice, CIDSE, Forum Citoyen pour la RSE all welcome this initiative. Our organisations have been calling on the EU for many years to establish clear preventive measures and legal standards of responsibility for human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by EU companies, through their own activities and the activities of subsidiaries, subcontractors and suppliers.

Victims of corporate human rights abuses often experience great difficulty in accessing justice due to numerous legal and practical barriers. EU companies having a duty of care, as requested by European parliamentarians, would allow victims of human rights abuses and environmental damage to hold EU companies accountable, if they failed to exercise adequate due diligence to prevent human rights abuses in the context of their own activities and also those of subsidiaries, contractors and suppliers.