ACAN’s Planning Some Key Events for the End of 2011!

Keep checking in here for more details…

The Launch of Australia’s First Ever Corporate Accountability Network – June, 2010

Thanks to the support of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Innovation Fund, on June 17, 2010, a diverse range of Australian civil society organisations and individuals, all with a practical interest in working on corporate accountability issues, came together to launch the Australian Corporate Accountability Network (ACAN).

The Mission Statement of ACAN is to be a network “of organisations and individuals that fosters collaborative work relating to the activities of companies in Australia and Australian companies operating abroad”.  ACAN is starting out along a similar path that other organisations have successfully pursued, including the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE), in the UK, and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ).  As such, ACAN’s development reflects a rapidly emerging global discussion about possible ways to address the gaps that exist in the mechanisms for holding corporations to account.  In recent years this global discussion has taken much energy from the work of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie and his excellent team.

The purpose of the event on June 17 was two-fold:

• To officially launch ACAN; and,
• To consult Australian civil society organisations about how they feel greater Australian corporate accountability looks like in practice, and what type of issues they would consider collaborating on.

The event was officially launched by Greens MP Colleen Hartland and Oxfam’s Mining Advocacy Coordinator, Serena Lillywhite, and was attended by fifty participants from a wide range of organisations and institutions from across Australia.  The first part of the day was set aside for those involved in developing the foundations of ACAN, the ‘Working Group’, to detail clearly the four main objectives of the Network.  These first two principles centre on improved transparency and accountability relating to corporate impacts. The third and fourth principles relate to improved access to effective remedies, and integrated responsibility for impacts into corporate decision making structures and practice.

After the Working Group ran a discussion session on these principles, the Network’s means of operation and proposed funding model, the participants discussed their work in the area of corporate accountability.  This discussion led on to participants discussing ways they could work together to bring about various key changes.

Overall the event demonstrated that participants can see clear potential benefits flowing from a collaborative approach, like that promised by ACAN. As one participant told the Working Group after the event, “I see ACAN as being an umbrella organisation for the corporate accountability movement, providing not just communication effectiveness but also the potential for greater power through organised numbers”.

While ACAN is only just starting out, a few things are already certain – there is a great need to influence Australian businesses to become more accountable, and for our government to commit to assuming its responsibility to foster the environment required to bring about this change.  Lastly, the coordinated momentum that is required to unwaveringly demand for this fundamental change, is finally emerging from within Australia. In this country we may yet see the kind of corporate accountability that reflects our society’s respect for fairness and social justice.