Given the growing power and influence of transnational companies, Amnesty International supports the UN Secretary General in his assertion that globalization must have a human face, one that recognizes that the promotion of universal values of justice as being as crucial and the promotion of markets and prosperity.
Amnesty International believes that the business community also has a wider responsibility - moral and legal - to use its influence to promote respect for human rights. A multinational company's reputation will be increasingly affected by its response - in word and deed - to the violation of human rights and the defence of such rights. Violations of human rights may contribute to civil instability and to uncertainty in th investment climate, but even where this is not the case, companies should not be silent witnesses.
Multinational companies have a responsibility to use their influence to try to stop violations of human rights by governments or armed political groups in the countries in which they operate. LArge companies regularaly try to influeence governments' tax and trade policies, their larour laws and environmental rules. The silence of powerful business interests in the face of injustice is not neutral.
Frank Jennings
Campaign Coordinator
Amnesty International Irish Section
48 Fleet Street
Dublin 2
Tel (01) 6776361 Fax (01) 6776392 Int. code +353 1
Email - fjenning@amnesty.ie
Web: http://www.amnesty.ie