From: Gerard Oonk <g.oonk@indianet.nl>
Date: Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 11:50 PM
Subject: No Child labour-Better Wages | Manual Scavenging | Dalit
Network NL | Human Rights and Transnationals | ISO 26000
To: ICN.India.News@server.liw.local
Dear reader,
It has been some time ago since you received news from the India
Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) via this IndiaNews mailing list.
This is not because nothing happened, but because there were too many
other issues to attend to. We plan to send you this news from now on
more frequently, around every two weeks or so. The newsletter mainly
focuses on issues of child labour & education, corporate
accountability and caste discrimination in South Asia. But we will
also inform you about related global, thematic or regional issues.
Path-breaking reports: No Child labour – Better Wages
Together with the federation of Dutch Trade Unions the India Committee
of the Netherlands has published the path-breaking report: 'No Child
Labour – Better Wages'. It shows that eradicating child labour, while
already being very positive itself, can also make a big contribution
to much better wages for agricultural labourers. Although the sample
of the study is small it reinforces the experience of e.g. the MV
Foundation in Andhra Pradesh that ending child labour leads to better
wages. It has also decreased the dependency of agricultural labourers
on the landowners. See:
http://www.indianet.nl/pdf/NoChildLabourBetterWages.pdf
This study is also published as part of a larger study on child labour
and decent work which has four other cases from India on this issue
showing, among other things, how unions can increase their membership
and strength if they engage in fighting child labour. This report is
called: Let Parents Earn and Children Learn:
http://www.indianet.nl/pdf/letparentsearn.pdf
Former manual scavengers demand total eradication and rehabilitation
`Government should apologise to us´
Around 1,000 Safai Karamcharis from 20 states, who were until recently
engaged in the outlawed practice of manual scavenging, assembled in
Delhi on the 1st of November 2010 and resolved to return to Delhi on 1
January 2011 if their demands were not met. "We are giving the
government time to announce a special package for the rehabilitation
of manual scavengers," said Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of the
Safai Karamchari Andolan Read more about this extraordinary movement
here:
http://www.dalits.nl/manualscavenging.html
Dalit Network Netherlands (DNN)
Do you want to know what the Dalit Network Netherlands (DNN) – a
member of the International Dalit Solidarity Network – stands for and
what it does, you can find this information here:
http://www.dalits.nl/pdf/EndCasteDiscrimination.pdf Please let us know
if you would like to receive a number of hard copies. We will send
them to you free of costs.
Guiding Principles Human Rights and Transnational Companies
UN Special Representative for Business and Human Rights John Ruggie
has published his draft Guiding Principles for the implementation of
the United Nations 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework. The draft
Guiding Principles are open for public review and comment until 31
January 2011. The draft Guiding Principles and press release are
available here:
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/1003306. Comments
can be sent via Professor Ruggie's online consultation forum:
http://www.srsgconsultation.org
The Guiding Principles elaborate and clarify for companies, states,
and other stakeholders how they can operationalize the UN 'Protect,
Respect and Remedy' Framework, by taking practical steps to address
business impacts on the human rights of individuals. The UN Human
Rights Council had...asked Ruggie to provide this additional concrete
guidance, [to be presented formally to the Human Rights Council at its
June session.
Rights for People, Rules for Business
Under this slogan the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ)
is conducting a petition campaign. We call on you to hold companies
operating in the EU legally accountable for any harm they cause to
people and the environment around the world. They must disclose
accurate information about their activities. Victims should face no
barriers in accessing justice in the EU. The campaign is directed to
the heads of state of the European Union and to the president of the
European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. Please sign at:
http://www.indianet.nl/petition_rightsforpeople.html
ISO 26000: Guidance on Social Responsibily
The ISO Guidance Standard for Social Responsibility of organizations
has been officially launched on the 1st of November. The national ISO
members have approved of the Standard with 93% of the votes in favour.
India was one of the few countries voting against it, while China
voted yes. The standard is unique for 'translating' international
human rights, labour and environmental standards for organizations,
but also for firmly establishing principles like accountability,
transparency, ethical behaviour and stakeholder engagement. This has
been done in a process of almost six years involving stakeholders
groups from governments, NGOs, unions, employers, consumer
organizations and a group of academics, consultants etc. Developing
countries were strongly represented. It is expected that, though this
standard is not certifiable, it will have a profound influence on the
discourse and practice of organizational accountability and social
responsibility. Unfortunately the standard is not freely available but
a lot of information can be found here:
http://www.iso.org/iso/social_responsibility
Kind regards,
Gerard Oonk
Gerard Oonk
director India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN)
Mariaplaats 4e, 3511 LH Utrecht
The Netherlands
http://www.indianet.nl/english.html
and
http://www.dalits.nl/english.html
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