Statement – United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner | GENEVA | 27 April 2020 |
OECD Member States should consider establishing a mechanism to prevent conflict of interest of their National Contact Points (NPC’s) corporate review process to strengthen the procedure and its credibility. Conflicts of interest must be prevented in order to not undermine accountability for gross human rights violations, a UN expert said today.
The UN Independent Expert on debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, said a case alleging the involvement of two European banks in illegal arms dealings by South Africa’s apartheid regime highlighted the need to establish an independent committee to review potential procedural flaws.
Membe States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which represents the 36 wealthiest countries, established National Contact Points (NPCs) at the national level as an independent mechanism reviewing responsible business conduct including the respect of human rights.
In May 2018, civil society organisations submitted a complaint to NCPs of Belgium and Luxembourg alleging that KBL Bank and KBC Group of Belgium allowed South African state-owned enterprise Armscor to fund and conceal weapons purchases in violation of a UN embargo, as well as offering financial vehicles for money-laundering.
Bohoslavsky said the complaints were dismissed at a preliminary stage without full consideration of the evidence and ignoring the arguments made in his amicus curiae on the legal implications of responsibility for financial complicity in gross human rights violations and the paramount importance of the right to truth in this case.
“I am also shocked about the fact that some representatives of the private sector’s NCP committee included KBC Group, and that despite numerous requests from the complainants to address the potential and apparent conflict of interest, no meaningful action was taken during or after the process. Being judge and judged at the same time is against basic legal principles,” the Independent Expert said.
