Its been four months since CDT — in partnership with Business for Social Responsibility — announced the launch of a multi-stakeholder initiative to produce a set of principles to guide the decision-making of high-tech companies when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights. The initiative has brought together a number of high tech companies, (including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!), investors, technology leaders, press organizations and human rights groups into an ambitious year-long dialogue that aims to not only draft principles, but to establish an ongoing governance process to measure progress, ensure accountability and foster ongoing dialogue and collaboration.

I have just returned from a meeting of the group in London and am optimistic with the progress that we are making. The group reviewed and commented on a first draft of principles and proposed operational procedures. That input will inform the second round of the drafting process and an additional subgroup is beginning the difficult task of considering metrics to measure company progress.

Progress is also being made in attracting other companies to the table. TeliaSonera, a major Swedish telecommunications company with operations in Russia and Eastern Europe has joined the group and a number of other Internet and telecommunications companies are closely following the process.

Hard questions remain. What should the real goal of corporate principles be? Should they be viewed as a road map to help companies analyze and minimize risks to human rights, or should they be expected to eliminate that risk altogether? How can companies be held accountable for adherence to the principles? Are there measurable and meaningful metrics to track progress, and, if so, can they be applied to the wide array of business models in the sector?

Still, having participated for more than a year in the informal dialogue that preceded the drafting process, I have no doubt that we have made progress. There is a great deal of trust and good will in the room that simply did not exist a year ago. The shared learning that has taken place has lead to a much more thoughtful and informed dialogue and all participants have made a commitment to put human rights at the center of the discussion. Getting to a consensus on all the elements of the principles and their implementation will not be easy. But it is important to step back and see how far we have come.

As for London, the dollar is so weak that the Americans in the group were counting every pound. But good conversation and a few breakthrough moments were had in the local pub where a pint of stout was still within reach. Team-building at its best.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.