The new briefing paper “Extractive Industries and Women’s Rights: Between partnerships and regulation – two diverging ways to tackle the problem at the UN,” published by AWID, DAWN, Global Policy Forum and Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, presents how women are disproportionately affected by negative social and environmental impacts of extractive industries. The briefing also explains why a new partnership between UN Women and BHP Billiton, launched in June 2018, is very problematic. Similar to UN Women, other United Nations (UN) entities are trying to attract partnerships with the corporate sector. As the case of UN Women shows, potential risks and side-effects of such partnerships are often not properly addressed.
These risks should also be considered in the preparation of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration commemorative events in 2020. Corporate involvement in these events should only play a limited role.
Rather than promoting further smart-looking corporate social responsibility projects that tend to “blue wash” a company’s reputation, the UN should be concerned with systematically addressing human rights abuses by corporations. A strong commitment to women’s human rights also needs to be addressed in partnership strategies and other initiatives such as the current negotiations on a UN treaty on business and human rights.
Extractive Industries and Violation of Women’s Rights
Between partnerships and regulation – two diverging ways to tackle the problem at the UN
Author: Karolin Seitz
Published by Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Editorial assistance: Barbara Adams, Felogene Anumo, Till Bender, Mike Gardner, Jens Martens and Claire Slatter
Berlin/Bonn/Suva/Toronto, October 2019
Contact:
Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Felogene Anumo: information@awid.org
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Claire Slatter: info@dawnnet.org
Global Policy Forum, Karolin Seitz: europe@globalpolicy.org
Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Till Bender: info@rosalux.org
