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Article

22 May 2013

Author:
Margaret Jungk, UN Working Group on business and human rights, in Huffington Post Blog

Shareholders Pressure McDonald's to Report Human Rights Impacts

On May 23, McDonald's shareholders will vote on a resolution requesting that the company identify and publicly report its human rights impacts. The resolution...requests that McDonald's performs...'human rights due diligence' in their operations, and then make their findings public...[T]his resolution is the first of its kind to ask that a company take action to assess actual human rights impacts...For McDonald's, this would mean reviewing labor practices, contractual arrangements with governments and criteria for assessing business partners for their possible impacts...'In light of McDonald's unwavering commitment to human rights and ongoing reporting in this regard, we believe the additional reporting requested by the proposal is unnecessary.' [says the] McDonald's Proxy Statement asking shareholders to oppose this resolution...This resolution, and the broader movement it symbolizes, demonstrates that investors, consumers, governments and even businesses are ready for new rules about how companies interact with society, and determining the viability of an investment doesn't just require information about what a company sells but what it does. [Refers to Caterpillar, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Goldcorp, Goldman Sachs, Google, Halliburton, Shell, Yahoo]