With legislation to wield a big stick, irresponsible business must be stopped. The Dutch Lower House should demand Minister Kaag that she come up with those laws, say Michiel Servaes (Oxfam-Novib), Tuur Elzinga (FNV), Peter d’Angremond (Fair Trade Netherlands), Jannelieke Aalstein (ActionAid) and Ronald Gijsbertsen (SOMO).
Today’s debate in the Lower House with Minister Kaag on international corporate social responsibility offers the opportunity to put an end to abuses, which Dutch companies are also guilty of.
In recent weeks alone, we have been reading about dredging company Van Oord and ING, which are involved in human rights violations in Angola. Dutch supermarkets sell wine from plantations in South Africa where trade union rights are violated. SBM Offshore dumped a ‘poison ship’ on the beaches of India. And the Dutch financial sector invests 12 billion euros in oil and gas companies drilling on the North Pole.
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