Liali Jera’i
Business and human rights
Response -1- week 5: business goes to war
Fall 2012
Morality of privatized wars
We are living in a world with rapid expansion of globalization, free market systems and privatization. Everything has advantages and disadvantages that may bring benefit and boom or harm and loss respectively. Due to the rise in the activities from corporations operating in their parent countries and abroad, a number of intense and severe negative externalities arose in last decade. These externalities hit different aspects in the society, violations of international and legal documents concerning human rights, the environment and labor, to name a few.
The most damaging issues occur when businesses operate in an unstable country where there are adverse human rights abuses and a lack of legislative and national laws to prevent such abuses. Most companies, especially private military and security companies, normally operate in situations of armed conflict. The rise of the aggressive attitude of these companies drew the attention of the international and local community to such harmful acts. The international community, civil society, governments, and non-governmental organizations became aware of the side effects of these corporations, and thus they started adopting and creating approaches and solutions to mitigate and prevent further violations committed by the MNCs. Such efforts include: The Montreux Document, International Code of Conduct, IHL…etc. The aim of these documents is to increase and ensure corporations attention to human rights responsibilities when operating in conflict zones. In this paper I’ll be discussing cases like Caterpillar and the selling of Bulldozers to Israel, and PMSCs like Blackwater, KBR, and Halliburton that operated during the war on Iraq in 2003.
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The misuse of equipments and products bought from well-known MNCs, especially when they create adverse human rights abuses, will absolutely focus the light on the idea of direct or indirect complicity of these multinational corporations in these illegal and inhumane acts. In recent years, especially after the invasion of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, Caterpillar, a US-based heavy-equipments Corporation, hit the news and the headlines for their selling of the powerful D9 bulldozer to the Israeli army. Reports indicated that the IDF misused and is still misusing the D9 bulldozer. “As Human Rights Watch documented in a recent report, the Israeli military uses the D9 as its primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture and shred roads in violation of the laws of war.”
Caterpillar’s D9 bulldozer is huge, strong, destructive equipment. It’s the main tool; used by the IDF, and it was used and still used nowadays in the destruction of many Palestinian houses, infrastructures, schools, and olive trees. Furthermore, CAT’s bulldozers have also been used in the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank, a wall that’s considered illegal under many international laws and was condemned by the International Court of Justice. Due to this complicity and participation in violations of human rights of the Palestinian people, Caterpillar has been subject to intense censure and criticism from the UN and international human rights advocates.
According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, “Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to Israel knowing that they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes… until Israel stops these practices, Caterpillar’s continued sales will make the company complicit in human rights abuses.” Caterpillar claims to maintain “a strong focus on social responsibility”, while its Code of Worldwide Business Conduct boasts “high ethical standards” through which Caterpillar should “set an example for others to follow”. This somehow contradicts with Caterpillar’s CEO James Owens response to Human Rights Watch. In a letter Owens stated that the company did “not have the practical ability or legal right to determine how our products are used after they are sold.” This is crystal clear that the company disregarded international norms on CSR and Caterpillar’s own code of conduct.
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Even though there are a number of different and good approaches that could assist businesses so not to find themselves trapped and complicit directly or indirectly in adverse human rights abuses and be able to reduce risks to their operations in conflict-affected regions, businesses still lack the will to change and be subject to international norms. The dilemma here is the “will” of MNCs, as their operations sometimes do not comply with IHL. The effectiveness of the mechanisms available for holding these corporations and their owners accountable should not always be questioned, because I believe that the international community should solve the dilemma of the “will” of these corporations first. Afterwards, companies should implement the favorable or the best initiatives, also to ensure on the idea of “due diligence” to ensure and respect human rights. After all, if the corporation commits any harm or wrong activities will risk one of the most priceless assets, which is their good name.
When operating in unstable areas around the world, PMSCs face a similar problem. These sun-rise industries have rapidly emerged after the cold war. They lack a number of essential stuff, such as: skills and familiarity of avoiding exacerbating volatility or violence. However, they’ve done terrible things in the countries where they were operating in. Iraq is considered as a good example for providing and reporting the bad practices and the violations of human rights done by big PMSCs. The war on Iraq has been privatized to the greatest extent than any other war in history. Billions of dollars were spent on police training. Blackwater has around 300 employees in Iraq, and spent millions on guarding important personnel, e.g. it provided private security to guard Paul Bremer with $21m.
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“Iraq for sale”, is a documentary about PMSCs’ practices in Iraq. It states many shocking facts about activities of PMSCs in Iraq. For instance, Blackwater reported a %600 growth from 2001-2005 while operating in Iraq. There has been many misuse and violations of laws and human rights. These companies existed to make profit on the account of civilians’ lives. They created jobs that didn’t need to be there and used people that were not qualified for these jobs, such as foreign workers from India and Pakistan, US civilians and many other, and this has worsen the situation. It was all about what America wants which was disgrace and destroy.
“The phenomenon of private contractors carrying out duties for the armed forces is not new: Article 4 (4) of the Third Geneva Convention explicitly refers to “persons who accompany the armed forces without being members thereof, such as […] supply contractors, members of labor units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces.” Article 4 (4) of the Third Geneva Convention even provides that those persons who have fallen into the power of the enemy shall be prisoner of war “provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model”. What is more recent, however, is the level of outsourcing that is now taking place, and the nature of the activities contracted out to private companies, which are doing tasks previously carried out by the military itself.”
In situations of armed conflict, IHL regulates both the activities of the staff of PMSCs and the responsibility of the states that hire them. However, since the USA dominated and controls the UN and most of the policies and decisions made by their allies, this power and great influence will weaken any reports that are against the US government and their corporations. Even though the ICRC always seeks to guarantee that PMSCs and their employees respect IHL, there are always violations of such laws by these companies. Along with the rapid emerge of PMSCs; one of the issues that emerged in recent years was the increase in the reliance on PMSCs by governments. What made the situation even worse was the direct contact of the staff of PMSCs with persons protected by IHL, such as: civilians, important personnel, and people who are deprived of their freedom.
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To conclude, I believe that there’s a great need for clearer international guidelines and constrains on companies operating in conflict zones. Countries should develop a framework on how to use firms like the PMSCs. For instance, military services should not be privatized; there should be a legitimacy of states to use PMSCs, an accountability and responsibility to attack any object or civilian, and requirements for the use and the demand on these PMSCs. Ethical considerations, which are rarely fully elaborated, should be included in any legal and international documents. However, what matters after all is the precious lives of our beloved ones that we’re forced to sacrifice for moral-less companies’ profit.
References
-Iraq for sale: the war profiteers, 2006 documentary by Robert Greenwald. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zt9BZD7mlc
– War on Want, Caterpillar: the alternative report and the company’s response,
– Human Rights Watch, “Caterpillar should suspend bulldozer sales”, http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/11/21/israel-caterpillar-should-suspend-bulldozer-sales
– International Committee of the Red Cross, ‘Business and International Humanitarian Law’, 2006. (Reader)
– James Cockayne, ‘Regulating Private Military and Security Companies: The Content, Negotiation, Weaknesses and Promise of the Montreux Document’, Journal of Conflict & Security Law 2009. (Reader)
FURTHER READING:
– Involvement of Private Contractors in Armed Conflict: Implications under International Humanitarian Law, http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/pmc-article-a-faite.pdf
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[ 2 ]. Human Rights Watch, “Caterpillar should suspend bulldozer sales”, http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/11/21/israel-caterpillar-should-suspend-bulldozer-sales
[ 3 ]. Human Rights Watch, “Caterpillar should suspend bulldozer sales”, http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/11/21/israel-caterpillar-should-suspend-bulldozer-sales
[ 4 ]. War on Want, Caterpillar: the alternative report and the company’s response,
[ 5 ]. Involvement of Private Contractors in Armed Conflict: Implications
under International Humanitarian Law, http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/pmc-article-a-faite.pdf
