Christian Aid’s report Behind The Mask: The Real Face Of CSR

Businesses are using corporate social responsibility as a shield behind which to campaign against environmental and human rights regulations, warns a report published today.

Christian Aid claims CSR is some cases counter-productive, worsening relations between business and local communities.

Shell’s chairman, Sir Philip Watts, is one of the executives attacked for playing a leading role in CSR while lobbying against tougher international laws. His company is held up as an example of a group that is implementing CSR initiatives in Nigeria, some of which are backfiring.

Christian Aid reports calls for new international guidelines to govern company behaviour. It wants UK legislation to:

· Make corporate social and environmental reporting and disclosure mandatory;
· Give directors a duty of care for communities and the environment making them legally responsible for the actions of their companies overseas;
· Enable people harmed by UK companies’ operations overseas to seek redress in British courts and provide resources to allow them to do so.

Christian Aid also argues the OECD should adopt a convention on the same issues similar to the one that covers bribery.

It says CSR is being used as a public relations tool and believes it is no coincidence that companies in areas such as oil, mining and tobacco are its biggest public champions.