[lbo-talk] Amnesty, meet BP; BP, Amnesty...

[Mark S]

>Los Angeles Times - Feburary 20, 2005
>
>From the Streets to the Inner Sanctum
>By Evelyn Iritani
>
>Activists have come a long way since the violent protests of 1999. Now 
>companies and trade policymakers are giving them a place at the table.
>
[snipped]
>
>The crowded Davos itinerary of Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty 
>International, included an appearance on a panel with the chief executive 
>of oil giant BP and private meetings with the prime minister of Pakistan, 
>the president of Georgia and the chief executive of machinery maker 
>Caterpillar Inc. She was focusing on poverty and women's issues.
>
>"What makes a difference is our ability to dialogue with them in a setting 
>like Davos," she said. "It's not across a barrier, and it's not 
>confrontational."

BP Amoco has an Ethical Conduct Policy that explicitly supports the 
principles of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the ILO 
Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises 
and Social Policy.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=27&contentId=2000422

I suspect that Ms. Khan asked the BP CEO to support research into social 
indicators that will allow her, and everyone else, to judge BP's progress 
against their policy.  As an Oxfam rep stated, "It is difficult to comment 
on the overall performance of BP Amoco with respect to human rights as the 
mechanisms for systematically capturing and reporting on progress are not in 
place."

M.

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