By the way, what is the geopolitical responsibility of companies? Credit: Carenews.
On January 16, the Court of Cassation rendered a decision regarding Lafarge: it confirmed the indictment of the cement manufacturer for “complicity in crimes against humanity”. The French company maintained a cement production unit in Syria until September 2014. To do this, she would have paid, according to a consulting firm, 13 million euros to Syrian armed groups, including the Islamic State. For this reason, the group is also accused of “financing a terrorist enterprise”, which will later lead to a trial. With this affair, the question of the responsibility of a company with regard to the geopolitical context arises.
Also read: Duty of vigilance: an agreement reached at European level
Questioning the role of businesses is not new
Remaining in a conflict zone, cooperating with an unfriendly regime… Political choices are now scrutinized in a world where geopolitical volatility is the order of the day. In an article published in 2018 in the International and strategic reviewNathalie Belhote and Bastien Nivet consider that “ the current period, combining geopolitical volatility, globalization and increased awareness, now raises the question of the emergence of a new form of “geopolitical corporate responsibility” ».
However, the classic approach in this area was to see companies as victims of the context, rather than as actors who could play a role in situations.
Certainly, the questioning around the attitude of large groups towards contexts and regimes is not new. LCollaboration with the Nazi regime during the Second World War tarnished the image of certain companies for a long time French and especially German. In the 1980s, the boycott of South Africa due to its apartheid regime particularly targeted companies, including Coca-Cola, which continued to trade there. This contributed to the end of the country’s regime in 1991.
After CSR, RGE?
But it is more recently that this idea that companies are responsible vis-à-vis the international context has really emerged. Gradually, the era is ending when we considered, as the neoliberal economist and somewhat provocative Milton Friedman said, that “ the only social responsibility of a company is to maximize its profits “. In the 21st century, the idea that businesses have a duty to society is strengthening. Which makes the general director of Maif, Pascal Demurger, say, in the title of a book published in 2019, that “The business of the 21st century will be political or it will not be”.
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is omnipresent in the business world today. It means that the company has a role to play in ecological and social issues and that it must take them into account in its activity.
Also read: What is CSR?
Accompanying this accountability, an international framework has gradually been formed regarding business practices. It regulates the relationship between companies and the environment, but also proposes standards in terms of human rights. At the same time, pressure from NGOs and public opinion has made companies more responsible for their actions. The Sherpa association, for example, founded in 2001, has the mission of protecting and defending populations who are victims of economic crimes. She played a key role in the Lafarge affair and helped bring it to justice.
A sign of this desire for accountability, the expression “Territorial corporate responsibility” recently appeared, defined in a work published in 2022 under the direction of researcher Maryline Filippi. This is the responsibility of the company towards the territory and the stakeholders who constitute it.
War in Ukraine, Uyghurs… Companies asked to be responsible
With the war in Ukraine, this idea of responsibility in international conflicts has returned to the forefront. Several companies have been singled out for maintaining their activities in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. At the beginning of January, several people demonstrated in Paris against the installation of a Rockwool factory in Aisne. They consider that the multinational specializing in rock wool insulation cooperated with Russia and supplied it with materials. According to an article from the engaged media It just is ! dating from February 2023, 89% of French companies with subsidiaries in Russia had not disinvested at that time.
But this is not the only subject on which company positions are observed. As proof, the recurring calls for a boycott of brands sourcing from factories using forced labor of Uyghurs in China. A report commissioned by the socialist group in the European Parliament and published in September 2023 shows that around forty European brands would use this forced labor.
But can we go so far as to speak of a “geopolitical corporate responsibility”, on the same model as CSR? “ Too often (…), companies’ attitudes towards conflicts are only reactive and in no way constitute a strategy. However, talking about the geopolitical responsibility of companies is, just as much as CSR, tending towards a real strategy, guided by principles of anticipation », Write Nathalie Belhote and Bastien Nivet in the article.
Théo Nepipvoda
2024-01-17 22:02:56
#Cheat #Sheet #geopolitical #responsibility #companies #Carenews #INFO
