Leadership role is ‘asking too much’

A leading figure at Amnesty International has suggested that multinationals are being asked to take on too much responsibility for advancing human rights.

Chris Marsden, chair of the Amnesty International UK business group, told the annual conference of the European Academy of Business in Society that he questioned ‘whether it is reasonable to expect companies to take a leadership position that [demands] they influence governments on social and environmental issues’.

Emphasizing that he was speaking in a personal capacity, Marsden said that it was asking a lot for business leaders to step in to fill the ‘governance deficit’ in countries where human rights were often ignored by politicians. However, he added that ‘whether they like it or not’, large companies are now being drawn into such areas.

Marsden’s stance was supported by Hans Ulrich Maerki, chairman of IBM for Europe Middle East and Africa, who told the conference in Barcelona that while business leaders should not shirk their human rights responsibilities, ‘I do think that business people should not replace politicians’. Many business leaders simply do not have the qualities or skills required to take a lead on such issues, he added.

Daniel Litvin, director of the Critical Resource consultancy, said that businesses could ease the pressure on themselves by ‘being more creative in the way they talk to and interact with governments’. Litvin, who is a former McKinsey consultant, cited the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an example of how innovative thinking had strengthened governance by improving disclosure of the oil revenues received by officials in developing countries.