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By Claire Lesegretain | France
How can we force multinational and large corporations to stop destroying ecosystems, practicing tax evasion, violating human rights and labor rights?
A few months ago, the international family of Catholic social justice organizations known as CIDSE sought to answer that question.
It drafted an appeal to all the world's bishops, urging them to pressure their respective governments to introduce "as soon as possible, binding legislation" to regulate the activities of large corporations and make them legally responsible.
"States can stop the abuse"
"Since the bishops have some influence, it can work to force large corporations to be vigilant," an official at the Brussels-based CISDE told La Croix.
"Corporate abuse at the detriment of people is still widespread, but countries all over the world have a unique opportunity to step up and stop this by introducing binding measures nationally, but especially at international and regional level," the organization said in July 6 statement on its website to announce the bishops' appeal.
Notably, this can be accomplished with a binding UN human rights treaty.
"This [COVID-19] pandemic has exposed our interdependency and has sown chaos in the global supply chains that link factories across borders, exposing our dependence on vulnerable laborers doing essential work across the globe," the bishops say in their appeal.
"Now more than ever, we need a mandatory supply chain of due diligence to stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity," they demand.
CIDSE did something similar with the world's bishops in 2015 when it proposed they sign a declaration on mining conflicts.
"This declaration, signed by 125 bishops around the world, worked well to get the message across to the European Parliament," the CIDSE communications office said.
CIDSE believes that the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has taken "a step in the right direction" by announcing the forthcoming development of compulsory EU legislation for companies on human rights and environmental protection, as part of the recovery plan put in place by the European Union after COVID-19 and as a contribution to the European "Green Deal".
Three cardinals -- Reinhard Marx of Germany, Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ of Luxembourg and Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar -- have already signed the appeal, as have nearly 115 bishops from some 30 countries on five continents.
As of July 6, however, none of the bishops from Britain, Ireland, Oceania or North America (except one from Mexico) had yet to sign the statement.
"We hope that many more bishops will sign the appeal by the end of the summer," continued CIDSE's communications office.
It noted that the next UN negotiations (sixth session) for a legally binding instrument for business will take place in October in Geneva.
"We need to apply a little pressure before then!"
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