In an open letter, 15 human rights organisations and labour unions, including Sherpa, are jointly urging EU policymakers, including Didier Reynders and Thierry Breton, to address the systemic issues related to the role of social auditing. The letter highlights that corporate-controlled social auditing is deeply flawed and that social auditors must be held accountable for human rights or environmental harm in their operations.
The signatories call for a robust liability regime for all companies, as part of the upcoming corporate accountability legislation. All companies must be liable for human rights harms and EU institutions must ensure that multinationals cannot outsource their duty of vigilance to private auditors. As such, the NGOs ask that the upcoming legislation’s provisions explicitly exclude social audits and certification as adequate proof of human rights due diligence in a court of law or in any other relevant enforcement actions.
- Open letter to EU policymakers on social audit failures
- Open letter by Saeeda Khatoon, President of the Ali Enterprise Factory Fire Affectees’ Association
- Open letter by Kalpona Akter on Sustainable Corporate Gouvernance legislation, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity
- Executive summary of the latest Corporate Legal Accountability briefing by Business and Human Rights Resources Centre