"Rethinking MSIs": MSI Integrity report & blog series on the role of multi-stakeholder initiatives
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After reflecting on a decade of research and analysis, our assessment is that this grand experiment has failed. MSIs are not effective tools for holding corporations accountable for abuses, protecting rights holders against human rights violations, or providing survivors and victims with access to remedy. While MSIs can be important and necessary venues for learning, dialogue, and trust-building between corporations and other stakeholders [...] they should not be relied upon for the protection of human rights. They are simply not fit for this purpose. It is time to rethink the role of MSIs.Not Fit-for-Purpose, Summary Report
In July 2020, MSI Integrity published a report "Not Fit-For-Purpose", concluding after 10 years of research that MSIs have failed to deliver on their promise to protect human rights. The report outlines six key cross-cutting insights and argues it is time to both rethink the role of MSIs and to challenge the corporate form. The report is available below.
To accompany the report, MSI Integrity partnered with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic to launch a blog series entitled “Rethinking Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives”, the aim of which is to share critical perspectives from a range of voices, with a particular focus on whether MSIs are working for rights holders and whether we need to rethink their role as human rights tools. The contributions are all available below and demonstrate the debate spurred by the report.
Contributions
- December 18, 2020, "Rethinking MSIs: Q&A on the Blog Series", Amelia Evans and Teddy Ostrow
- December 14, 2020, "Rethinking Corporate Accountability", by Fola Adeleke
- October 8, 2020, “Restructuring MSIs to Improve Social Compliance in Supply Industries,” by Zobaida Khan
- October 1, 2020, “Time to Bury MSIs?—Not so Fast,” by Bennett Freeman
- September 17, 2020, “MSIs and the Search to Cure the Governance Gap,” by Judy Gearhart
- September 3, 2020, “Be Wary of the Fox(es): A Power Analysis of MSIs,” by Rebecca Tweedie and Tyler Giannini
- August 27, 2020, “Are Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives Mere Lip Service for Local Communities?” by Jaff Bamenjo
- August 20, 2020: “Where Is the Debate About Democracy and Multi-stakeholder Governance?” by Harris Gleckman
- July 30, 2020: “Regulating Responsible Business Conduct” by Manon Wolfkamp, David Ollivier de Leth and Mariëtte van Huijstee
- July 23, 2020: “Binding Brands to Create Change” by Christie Miedema
- July 16, 2020: Introduction to the series by Tyler Giannini and Amelia Evans