Resources:
Corruption as a Violation of International Human Rights, Anne Peters, European Journal of International Law, Volume 29, Issue 4, November 2018, Pages 1251–1287
https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/29/4/1251/5320164
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN
https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
The fact is that human rights and erosion of the environment are the worst where corruption is the highest… And wherever corruption is maintained or getting larger, we cannot really expect that ESG is going to go anywhere better, because the corruption is practically financing it going worse. Let’s think about this!
One aspect is that enhancing human rights should have positive impact on the corruption. Makes sense that empowering people and holding policy makers and governors accountable will increase both intolerance towards corruption, reports of corruption and hopefully enforcement.
Similar is true for violation of the natural environment. It is not difficult to imagine that complying with environment protection laws and standards is economically costly, and it is going to be even more so. By nature of business and humans unfortunately, this is exposed to corruption risk, without any awareness of catastrophic consequences.
In other words, it was cheaper to bribe supervisors and officials in power to load and store dangerous substances in the port, than it was to comply with security standards and laws. 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer often used as a component in improvised explosive devices, was recklessly stored at Beirut’s port since 2014. In August 2020 these had suddenly exploded and lead to immense social and environmental catastrophe.
But we need not to go very far from European homes either. Many can remember bridges going down, trains crash, chemical factory explosions, because of complex reasons…, about hired workers exploitation beyond what’s humanly appropriate, almost at our doorstep.
Resources:
How corruption ruined Lebanon, The New York Times Magazine
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/magazine/corruption-lebanon.html
The killed us from the inside, Human Rights Watch, 2021
https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/08/03/they-killed-us-inside/investigation-august-4-beirut-blast
Think than about the power of educating, informing, discussing, communicating and advocating about this connection between the corruption and human rights and environmental harm continuously! We should do this anywhere and all the time; one on one, in schools, at home, inside the companies and at conferences…
Let’s explore how this is true for our environments and how should businesses, business leaders, policymakers and professionals approach this, together. Eventually this will soon be forced even stronger under current and upcoming EU Green legislation.
We are bringing you the Big ESG Discussion at Bled Compliance and Ethics Conference 2023, which is going to cover this perspective as well. Join us!
