Click here for pdf of "Moving Beyond Voluntarism,"

A Civil Society Analysis of the Government Response to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) 14th report,

The mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, Prof. John Ruggie, will come to an end in June.

A Focus on Poverty, Economic Reform and Climate Change
In 2010 Canada will play host to the world.  The Vancouver Olympics and the G8 and G20 Summits in Muskoka and Toronto will draw the attention of millions to Canada, its geography, its values, policies and practices. If 2008 was the year of China, then 2010 can be the year of Canada.  Around the globe, Canadians proudly sport the Canadian flag in traveling as a symbol of Canadian democracy, openness and concern for human rights.  Yet our great international achievements of the past—Canadian contributions to the establishment of international peacekeeping, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines and the International Criminal Court—are today clouded by concerns about Canada’s current role in climate change negotiations, Afghanistan, reform of the global economy and addressing global poverty.

Brussels, Tuesday 8 November

Mr. Steve Tvardik
Head, Export Credits Division
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Paris, France

Dear Mr. Tvardik and members of ECG,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the review of the Revised Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits (Common Approaches). Please find below our comments.

Best wishes,
Deborah Lambert-Perez for ECA-Watch

To read submission, click here.

October 27, 2003

Mr. A. Ian Gillespie
President and CEO
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor street,
Ottawa, ON   K1A 1K3

The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew
Minister of International Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive, Tower B, 5th Floor
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G2

Re.: Draft OECD recommendation on Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits: 2003 Review – Revised version 1

Dear Mr. Gillespie and Minister Pettigrew:

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to comment on the ‘Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits: 2003 Review – Revised version 1’ (Rev. 1).

September 24, 2006

Professor John Ruggie
UN Special Representative to the Secretary General on Business and Human Rights
Harvard University
John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Dear Professor Ruggie

RE: General Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments

We are sharing with you our collective views on general principles for a human rights impact assessment. These have arisen from a meeting on community-driven human rights impact assessments, convened by Rights & Democracy[1] in Johannesburg, South Africa, 21-24 September, 2006.

NGO Working Group
on the Export Development Corporation
A working group of the Halifax Initiative

Background paper
for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Hearings on Bill C-31 on the Export Development Act

October 15, 2001

The NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation is a coalition of 17 Canadian non-governmental organisations concerned about the social, human and environmental impacts of export credit agencies. The NGO Working Group has been participating fully in the legislative process on the Export Development Act since 1999, including the SCFAIT hearings in 1999, the public consultations on the EDC’s disclosure policy and environmental review framework, and the international campaign to reform export credit agencies which has focused on the OECD’s Export Credit Guarantees process.