SERAP drags Coca-Cola, NBC to UN over harmful drinks and abuse of right to health
(Nigeria) Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has
dragged Coca-Cola Limited and the Nigerian Bottling Company Limited to the United
Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights over “serious
breaches of corporate responsibility to respect the right to health of
Nigerians and the failure to provide effective remedies to victims.”
SERAP said “This failure of due diligence has implications
for the enjoyment of the economic and social rights guaranteed under the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”
The petition by its Executive Director, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni
followed last week’s disclosure by the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council of
cases of harmful drinks including two half-empty cans of Sprite, a product
manufactured by the NBC under the licence and authority of Coca-Cola Limited,
and rusty bottle crown corks, rusty cans and foreign particles in products. The
CPC also said that these companies have failed to put in place a Shelf Life
Policy for their products in the country to facilitate the removal of expired
products from the market.
According to SERAP, “Both Coca-Cola and NBC have failed and
or neglected to subject their manufacturing process to inspection by
appropriate authorities, contrary to national laws and international standards,
in particular, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights:
Implementing the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework. The
Guiding Principles were endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011.
“Coca-Cola and NBC are required to ensure that their
activities do not directly or indirectly cause human rights abuses, and to
provide effective remedies to victims in cases of abuses of human rights. They
must seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly
linked to their operations, products or services by their business
relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.
“The human rights abuses by Coca-Cola and NBC illustrate the
lack of explicit human rights policies by several companies operating in
Nigeria and which have continued to contribute to the violations and abuses of
the economic and social rights of millions of Nigerians. Even companies with
human rights policies have failed and or neglected to effectively implement
these policies for the sake of profit.
“We believe that the human rights abuses by Coca-Cola and
NBC cannot be justified in the light of the letter and spirit of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN
Guiding Principles as well as the Committee’s own jurisprudence.”
SERAP therefore, requested the Committee “being the
principal body established to monitor compliance with the Covenant, to act
urgently not only to ensure that corporate bodies like Coca-Cola and NBC are
not directly or indirectly abusing the economic and social rights of Nigerians
under the Covenant and the Guiding Principles, but also to protect the
sanctity, credibility, efficacy, and authority of the Covenant and the Guiding
Principles and the Committee’s role in ensuring that corporate practices do not
directly or indirectly lead to abuses of human rights.
“The Committee should work with the Working Group on the
issues of human rights and transnational corporations and other business
enterprises to put pressure on Coca-Cola and NBC to respect their social
responsibility to promote human rights and to afford remedies to the victims
involved in this case,” it added.
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