Trading away human rights

We and our partner organisations are lobbying the UK Government to reform UK Export Finance, to ensure it upholds human rights standards. Right now, it's failing.

Our latest research shows the UK Government is failing to prevent UK businesses from engaging in trade where human rights are at risk of violation.

• Briefing: A history of neglect: UK Export Finance and human rights (July 2013)

Inquiry into UK Export Finance Launched

In May 2012 the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Corporate Responsibility announced it was launching an Inquiry into the UK's export credit agency UK Export Finance. The Inquiry was chaired by Lisa Nandy MP (Labour); its panel comprised Lisa Nandy MP,  Martin Horwood MP (Liberal Democrat) and Harriett Baldwin MP (Conservative).

We submitted written evidence to the Inquiry, as did each of our campaign partners seeking to reform UK Export Finance. We also gave evidence to the Inquiry in June - as did  the Jubilee Debt Campaign, The Corner House and WWF UK.

• Read our written submission to the Inquiry (PDF)

• APPG press release announcing the Inquiry (Word)

• APPG terms of Inquiry (Word) - Please note, submissions closed on 11 June 2012

The Inquiry published its report in December 2012 (PDF). Key recommendations include that UK Export Finance should: 

• Regard the OECD Common Approaches as a starting point for Environmental, Social and Human Rights (ESHR) standards
• Expand the standards to all project applications, including aerospace and at all values
• Impose penalties on companies that violate standards 
• Appoint a non-executive director to the management board with human rights experience and allow Export Guarantees Advisory Council (EGAC) to review current applications on request. No project should be granted cover until its ESHR assessment is completed. More transparency is welcomed.
• Establish a grievance mechanism
• Consult on a prohibitions list for arms 
• Conduct a review of existing best practice on human rights and the environment in the private sector to ensure UK Export Finance standards do not cover projects that the private sector would not on ethical grounds.
• Publish all impact assessments, subject to reasonable commercial confidentiality constraints and audit all debts owed.

You can find out about more the campaign at cleanupexports.org.uk

Early Day Motion 622

Britain's top five dirty deals

Mark Thomas and our partners Jubilee Debt Campaign have made a film capturing some of the deals overseen by UK Export Finance - with devastating effects.

Vince Cable's response is not enough

Leading campaign partner The Jubilee Debt Campaign has been lobbying Secretary of State for Business and Industry Vince Cable to ensure that UK Export Finance stops supporting arms exports and fossil fuel projects.

They also called on him to ensure that the UK government investigates the origin of all debts owed as a result of UK Export Finance business and cancel those found to be unjust, such as loans made to dictatorial regimes that have now fallen and are being paid back by the very people they were used to repress. 

Read Vince Cable's response (pdf) | Read his attached letter (pdf) 

Our campaign

The objective of the Campaign is to bring about a fundamental reform of UK Export Finance (formerly the Export Credits Guarantee Department), to ensure its policies and practices are based on mandatory standards. Our aim is to minimise any negative human rights impacts arising from the UK Export Finance's support of UK businesses.

• June 2012 campaign update (PDF)

10 Minute Rule Bill

The 10 Minute Rule Bill is a device to raise an issue in Parliament. Lisa Nandy MP for Wigan introduced a 10 Minute Rule Bill about reform of the ECGD (now UK Export Finance) on 27 April 2011.The five MPs pictured above supported the Bill. They are (from left to right): Zac Goldsmith Conservative MP for Richmond Park, Sheila Gilmore Labour MP for Edinburgh East, Lisa Nandy Labour MP for Wigan, Bob Russell Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester and Dr Eilidh Whiteford Scottish National Party MP for Banff and Buchan.

'In 2010, the previous Government removed mandatory screening of child and forced labour for ECGD-backed projects. Between 2009 and 2010, the ECGD backed £21 million-worth of unscreened projects'. 'We should be promoting the best of British business to the rest of the world and we should be leading the way in our commitment to human rights and the environment'.                                                                                     - Lisa Nandy Labour MP, Wigan

• Watch Lisa Nandy MP introducing the Ten Minute Rule Bill
• Read Lisa Nandy MP's article on guardian.co.uk
• Read an article about the 10 Minute Rule Bill on telegraph.co.uk
• Read a letter from the cross party co-sponsors of the Bill

This is just the beginning, over the coming months we will be undertaking further parliamentary action in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Keep checking back for more details.

Good news: EU countries agree to toughen scrutiny of export loans

On 29 June 2011 the EU Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission agreed to make national export credit agencies (ECAs) more accountable for the support they give exporting companies doing business around the world. The EU Parliament will formally adopt the proposals in mid September.

If followed the proposals mean that from 2012 the EU Commission will produce a report for the EU Parliament. The report, which will be made public, will include information from member states and should enable Parliamentarians and civil society to follow up on issues of human rights.

Along with ECA-Watch and Eurodad we welcome this move to increase transparency and human rights compliance and hope that this will trigger more ambitious reforms in EU capitals, leading to a general reform in global ECA standards

• Find out more on amnesty.eu
• Find out about ECA-Watch
• Find out about Eurodad
  

OECD's Common Approaches

In 2003, the OECD (Organsiation for Economic Co-operation and Development) adopted a non-binding document: the 'Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits', known as the 'Common Approaches'.

The Common Approaches acts as the governing instrument for all the export credit agencies operating in the OECD, including the ECGD (now UK Export Finance). The Common Approaches is currently under review and Amnesty International has been lobbying, together with ECA Watch for the Common Approaches to be updated and for them to refer to human rights standards for the first time.

The review process is not transparent, so it is hard to determine what progress has been made in getting human rights included with appropriate references to international human rights standards. However, there are some indications that a number of countries are resisting the inclusion of human rights for 'fear of harming the competitiveness of their exporters.

Read Amnesty's submission to the OECD review process (pdf)

Update June 2011 Despite us making key recommendations over a number of months, the Common Approaches still fail to include references to international human rights standards. As the OECD Export Credit Group (ECG) prepared to host a meeting in Paris on 21 June, we sent the Secretary General of the OECD an open letter reiterating our concerns. The Common Approaches does not yet contain the necessary requirements to ensure that ECAs (Export Credit Agencies) and OECD's clients respect human rights in the projects that they undertake and support. Call on the Chairman of the ECG to insist ECAs and their clients respect human rights To ensure that ECAs do not support projects which violate human rights, the OECD ECG and its member states must: Insist that ECAs require their clients to undertake human rights due diligence Ensure that, as an absolute minimum, the revised version of the Common Approaches is consistent with international human rights standards as well as the international framework on human rights and business Require the ECG to consult on amendments to the text of the revised Common Approaches in a public and open manner before the process is completed Read our full letter

OECD Guidelines review

The review of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises finished in May 2011. While we welcome the many important amendments in this update, it does not go the whole way.

The OECD and its member states must now ensure that they instil a commitment to human rights across all policy areas and that this commitment, demonstrated in the revised Guidelines, is replicated in other relevant OECD standards and policies.

This is particularly relevant with regards to the current review of the Common Approaches. The Common Approaches contain recommendations on environmental impact of projects but they make no reference to human rights.

As a minimum, the Common Approaches document should lay down a due diligence framework to ensure Export Credit Agencies do not support commercial activity that may cause or contribute to human rights abuses.

Read our full response to the review of the Guidelines (pdf)