The third draft of “Guidelines for Corporations Operating in Burma” has been submitted to “Civil Society Organizations and Shareholders Addressing Corporations in Burma” by the US Campaign for Burma Committee on SRI at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Organizations that have current input on these benchmarks include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Campaign for Burma, AFL-CIO, International Trade Union Congress (ITUC), Freedom House, Asia Foundation, Open Society, and the Conflict Risk Network of United to End Genocide”. It’s also unfortunate that, while citing examples of abuses committed by foreign corporations operating in Burma, no mention is made of campaigns to call mining companies specifically to account – notably Ivanhoe-Rio Tinto, around the Monywa concessions. But the most important question to ask is surely this: are companies being invited, through observing these benchmarks, to effectively substitute for democratic government in bringing about essential reforms?
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11904.