Review of Open Lecture with Salil Shetty
Corporate Accountability - using the law to level the playing field
Salil Shetty in the Open Lecture at ESMT
Speaker: Salil Shetty, 
Secretary General, Amnesty International
Normally he does not give lectures in business schools. For ESMT, Salil Shetty made an exception on April 15, 2011 – also because one of his closest fellows at university was C.B. Bhattacharya, today Professor and Associate Dean of International Relations at ESMT.
C.B. Bhattacharya introduced Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, who then held an exciting speech about corporate accountability. He stated that while the negative impact of companies has been an issue for decades, the impact of corporate activities on human rights has been on the global agenda only for a comparatively short period of time. This has been pushed there in large part because civil society - human rights, environmental and development groups and trades unions - have increasingly exposed the problems and connected consumers and investors with communities experiencing negative impacts.
Media reports and campaigns on issues such as child labor, toxic waste, and corporate collusion with repressive governments, have evoked public anger. During his speech, Salil Shetty elaborated on two main questions: How do companies harm human rights? Why do these problems occur? He also presented a clear point of view towards the activities companies follow within the field of Corporate Social Responsibility. From a human rights perspective, CSR has resulted in confusion.
When Amnesty International confronts companies over human rights abuses, many immediately refer to their charitable projects - such as building a health post or providing books to a local school – as evidence of their human rights commitment. However, positive action in one area does not absolve any responsibilities for human rights harms elsewhere. Human rights abuses cannot be 'offset'.
Therefore Amnesty International focuses on three key legal initiatives to address the human rights impact of business.
• Law to require companies to respect human rights due diligence – making sure the companies and the communities know what is likely to happen.
• Law to make information available to people. Information is power, and when communities and activists know what is going on, they can question and challenge companies and governments
• Law to close the loopholes that allow massive, rich companies to exploit weak regulation.
ESMT European School of