No. 7 - April 2007

Greetings!

Welcome to the Spring 2007 issue of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) newsletter. Much has happened thus far in 2007 and we are excited to bring you up to date regarding GPPi’s activities. We are also happy to announce the completion of the new and improved GPPi website. The updated format should make browsing our site and finding information much easier and we hope you visit our new home on the web. You can find us at www.gppi.net.

Our newsletter appears three times a year to keep you informed about the institute, to post our newest publications, and to share interesting recent news on global public policy-making. In this issue, we focus on Germany's dual G-8/EU presidency and John Ruggie's March 2007 report to the UN on business and human rights.

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Research

Learning to Build Peace?
The United Nations, Peacebuilding and Organizational Learning

Socializing the Dragon?
Europe’s China Policy and Global Security Governance

The New Protectorates
International Administration and the Dilemmas of Governance

The Emergence of a European Strategic Culture
The Construction and the Functioning of the European Security and Defence Policy

Crisis and Change
The UN Secretariat and the Quest for Accountability

"Towards Global Partnerships": Development of the Secretary-General’s Report

Corporate Engagement in Disaster Preparedness and Humanitarian Response

Consulting

Principles for a "Best Practice" Strategy in the Use of Public-Private Partnerships in German Development Assistance

Networking United Nations Private Sector Focal Points

Preparation of a Strategy Workshop for World Bank Staff

Debate

Transatlantic Energy Security Dialogues

Hertie School Executive Education Seminar 2007

Global Atlanticists

Topic 1

1. Making the Most of the Heiligendamm G-8 Summit

Jeffrey Sachs, Speech at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, 2 March 2007

Summary:

In his speech, entitled "Making the most of the Heiligendamm G8 Summit", Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and professor at Columbia University, defined two central themes of importance: Climate change/environmental protection and poverty reduction. According to Sachs, the goal must be to demand the realisation of already agreed upon treaties as opposed to setting new and unrealistic goals. In addition, Sachs expressed several other demands for the Heiligendamm G8 summit, for example that nation states need to honour and be aware of their global commitments and responsibilities; standards for quantitative reduction of carbon dioxide emissions must be created; investment in technological developments towards alternative forms of energy production is critical; and developing nation states need to be supported through forms of financial compensations or other similar incentives.

2. Germany and the G-8 Presidency
Fredrik Erixon and Andreas Freytag, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), February 2007

Summary:

The G-8 Presidency is occurring in a formative period for German foreign economic policy. Germany is about to step out of the post-Cold War order, but has not yet found a comprehensive strategy for global engagement, this policy briefing argues, and due to its flexible approach to the G-8 Presidency, Germany has neglected to form a de­cisive agenda that fits the G-8 structure of a limited membership. Furthermore, the briefing stresses that Germany has not been inclined to use its Presidency to link its foreign economic policy to a domestic reform agenda and its tradition of Ordnungspolitik – the yin of domestic economic policy and the yang of foreign economic policy – has been lost. However, the briefing emphasizes that Germany is again in a position to demonstrate the vigour of a comprehensive economic policy that binds together foreign and domestic economic policy while also taking the opportunity to revive the Doha Round, and in doing so, play a new role in global economic policy that corresponds with its position as a top-league trading nation.

3. Germany Aims to Capitalise on Fears about Global Warming
George Parker and Hugh Williamson, Financial Times, 20 March 2007

Summary: 

This article emphasizes Germany's desire to mobilize public concern over climate change to resolve another of the European Union's trickiest problems: the relaunch of the bloc's draft constitutional treaty. Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, is working on ways to include the need for united action against global warming in proposals on the constitution treaty.

The aim, the article stresses, would be to give the treaty a populist push by tapping into an issue that has captured the imagination of people across Europe - regardless of national borders or political affiliation - to seek to demonstrate the relevance of the EU's controversial set of rules and institutions in the constitutional treaty.

Topic 2

1. Business and Human Rights: Mapping International Standards of Responsibility and Accountability for Corporate Acts
John Ruggie, Harvard University and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business & Human Rights, 28 March 2007

Summary:

On 28 March 2007, Harvard Professor John Ruggie presented his much-anticipated report to the United Nations Human Rights Council as part of his two-year mandate as Special Representative to the Secretary-General on business and human rights. In the report, Ruggie highlights the lack of legally binding international human rights standards that apply directly to corporations. He does conclude, however, that "the most consequential legal development is the gradual extension of liability to companies for international crimes, under domestic jurisdiction but reflecting international standards." While imperfect at this time, Ruggie states, "no comparably consistent "hard law" developments were found in any other areas of human rights, which leaves large protection gaps for victims".

Moreover, Ruggie writes, "[c]urrent treaties do not require states to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction over business abuse...International law permits a state to exercise such jurisdiction provided there is a recognized basis: where the actor or victim is a national, where the acts have substantial adverse effects on the state, or where specific international crimes are involved." However, he points out that [e]xtraterritorial jurisdiction must also meet an overall reasonableness test, which includes non-intervention in other states’ internal affairs." In this respect, the debate continues over precisely when the protection of human rights justifies extraterritorial jurisdiction.

In addition to "hard law" requirements, Ruggie also discusses "soft law" mechanisms, or those that "derive normative force through recognition of social expectations" such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Kimberley Process and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. While these self-regulation initiatives currently lack accountability, Ruggie emphasizes, they are setting the stage for future binding regulation.

Ruggie ends the report by requesting a one-year extension of his mandate in order to submit "views and recommendations" to the Human Rights Council on how to "create effective remedies on the ground."

2. Ruggie Tells States to Mind their Businesses
Susan Aaronson, George Washington University, 5 March 2007

Summary:

In this article, Susan Aaronson stresses that the main point of Ruggie's report is that businesses all over the world acknowledge that they have human rights responsibilities, however, business executives remain confused as to which human rights they should take responsibility for and how best to advance those rights.

Based on Ruggie's evidence-based case, Aaronson emphasizes that businesses can do more to ensure that they do not undermine human rights, however, she argues that determining the human rights responsibilities of business is not just a business problem; it's a global public policy problem. Ultimately, she states, "it is up to citizens and policymakers to mind their businesses."

3. NGO Joint Statement to the UN on Ruggie's Final Report
"Oral Intervention": Amnesty International, ESCR-Net, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights, 29 March 2007

Summary:

This joint statement from Amnesty International, ESCR-Net, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists and the International Federation for Human Rights focuses on three main points of Ruggie's final report to the UN on business and human rights. First, while the Special Representative’s report rightly recognizes that the expansion of global markets has not been matched with sufficient human rights protection, the statement argues that the Human Rights Council's discussions should incorporate the voices of those affected by corporate human rights abuses.

Second, the statement acknowledges Ruggie's finding that states either do not fully understand their duty to protect against corporate human rights abuses or are not always able or willing to fulfil this duty. States must do much more to regulate companies, they argue.

Lastly, while voluntary and multi-stakeholder initiatives have a role to play in relation to business and human rights, the statement emphasizes that an over-reliance on voluntary intiatives as a means of safeguarding the human rights of the victims of corporate human rights abuses would be both inappropriate and inadequate.