Opening remarks from Margot Wallström at Responsible Business in Uncertain Times

Chair of IHRB's International Advisory Council Margot Wallström’s remarks during IHRB’s event: Responsible Business in Uncertain Times: Strengthening Corporate Leadership Amidst Widening Global Conflicts, hosted at the ICRC in Geneva on 9 October 2024.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here and thanks to the Institute for Human Rights and Business for bringing us together for such a timely and critical discussion on the importance of corporate leadership in facing rising conflicts and growing uncertainties.

I'm very grateful, of course, also to the Government of Switzerland, and to the ICRC for having us here today, and to all of you for participating in our conversations. I will start with trying to put us in the same bigger frame and understanding of the world, because we have to see ourselves in that bigger picture. 

At the beginning of 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke at the World Economic Forum here in Switzerland. And she said that we are moving through an era of conflict and confrontation, of fragmentation and fear. And to add to that, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, referred to the newly agreed UN Pact for the Future as a chance to bring multilateralism back from the brink. And of course, many of the agreed actions in this pact relate directly to conflict and UN Security Council reform.

So we face all of these, I would say, existential crises today, from the mounting impacts of climate change and the environmental problems that we see to the rising number of conflicts and wars in the world. And of course, now, every day this is on our screens and in our minds and hearts, as are the humanitarian emergencies around the world. So we have more than 100 million people displaced and on the run to rising forms of very divisive nationalism and protectionism.

And also, as Secretary-General Gutteres has said, we also have a fractured rules based international order and a much more divided and uncertain world. So these are serious challenges as we work to advance responsible business performance in all regions. 

Irresponsible actors from many industry sectors have profited from weak legal systems and lack of effective regulations and enforcement of international standards. Short term profits are often prioritized at all costs. And we see that precarious working conditions and lack of decent long term economic prospects also remain the norm for far too many people.

Economic integration has produced enormous benefits for some, but has also brought about rising inequality and instability in many countries. This has been a significant cause of populist and nationalist reactions. And I will go as far as saying that I think that these deep economic inequalities are also becoming incompatible with democracy.

We see democracy being undermined. And more people now live in countries that are moving backwards rather than making progress when it comes to democracy.

And we must not underestimate what this means to all of us. Now, there have been significant efforts to address these problems, including international agreements like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as steps at national and regional levels to make these standards binding. And most recently, of course, with the European Union's long awaited corporate sustainability due diligence directive.

The EU directive coming into force aims to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behavior in companies’ operations and across their global value chains. But there are limits to what individual businesses can achieve with the due diligence objectives set out in such regulations, especially when they operate in high risk and conflict affected areas. And this is what we ought to discuss.

What does that mean? How should companies  act and react? Greater cooperation among industries, as well as joint actions with governments, trade unions and civil society will be critical to achieving better performance.

So the idea for today is  to take stock of successes and shortcomings and share lessons, including lessons learned in how to advance business actions that respect international human rights and humanitarian law standards, even in the most difficult operating environments. Unfortunately, the reality today is that instead of speaking up for human rights and the rule of law, some business leaders are instead leading the pushback against more responsible governance, including corporate governance. We see that in a continuing backlash against environmental, social and governance integration in investing.

This comes from a relatively small but vocal group of influential politicians and business people. And I can see this since I worked for five years as the environment commissioner for the European Union. And I see now that there is a critical point in how we choose to move forward.

Do we strengthen already existing laws that we have, or do we decide to loosen all of this up? And unfortunately, I think we risk seeing a backlash also for environmental protection.  We need to hear more from business leaders pushing back against divisive rhetoric and how it feeds into those wider challenges relating to conflict, responsible governance and principled international cooperation.

 I will use this opportunity to just say a few words about something I've been working on for more than a year  on a task given by the President of Ukraine to look at the environmental consequences of Russia's war on Ukraine.   Our working group has produced a report  where we present an assessment of the environmental damage from the war and the significance forUkrainians who will pay for the damage done to both people and to nature.

 We have also been looking at how we reconstruct and rebuild in a better and greener way in Ukraine. And I must quote Tacitus and what he said about the Romans, because I think that captures what we have seen, because Tacitus said to ravage, to slaughter, to steal this, they give the false name of empire, and where they create a desert, they call it peace. And I think that this is what we have seen in this high level group on the environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine that I co chaired, together with Andre Yarmak, chief of staff of the President.

We have produced 50 recommendations to the government of Ukraine. These include a number of recommendations focused on rebuilding in a responsible way and in a sustainable way in a situation of an ongoing war and conflict. 

Responsible business leadership will be critical in finding a way forward that can help bring about lasting peace and justice and a sustainable economy for all people in Ukraine.

So let me close by pointing also to the recently adopted UN Pact for the Future, that offers  a slim ray of light offering hope for our collective efforts in these dark times.The topics we'll be addressing today around the importance of responsible business in sectors often linked to and impacted by conflict, like commodities, technology and finance, are reflected in the UN declaration. The Pact for the Future calls for greater business efforts on a wide range of issues, including food and agriculture supply chains, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, improving the health and sustainable use of oceans, protecting media professionals working in situations of armed conflict, addressing risks to sustaining peace posed by disinformation and misinformation, expanding private sector investment in science, technology and innovation and creating decent jobs and livelihoods.

And we need to acknowledge as well that government leaders must  take the brave and principled actions required to make these and other commitments a reality in the time ahead. And that's why I'm so pleased to hand over also to you, the representatives of the government of Switzerland, who are also taking an active part in this event.

I'm sure they will also shed further light on how the summit outcomes connect to our agenda. It is critical that we do everything possible to reinvigorate the multilateral system and international and financial architectures in  ways that will deliver on promises made to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development through strengthened accountability, transparency and implementation mechanisms. 

Thanks again to the Institute for Human Rights and Business for bringing us together, and I look forward to our discussions. I will end on a piece of poetry by Emily Dickinson:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -