Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

264 philippe le billongovernments and nongovernmental organizations in the field of corporateresponsibility include the following (Adams 2002):• Prescriptive legislation instituting mandatory disclosure and“smart legislation” stimulating the demand for corporate social responsibilitydata• Voluntary standards and principles, reporting guidelines, andperformance indexes• Direct engagement with companies and industry associations(high-level meetings, consumer pressure, independent monitoring).These efforts have been directed mostly at the largest publicly listedcompanies, which are generally dealing with governments rather thangroups or authorities.Stock market regulations demand minimum levels of disclosurefrom publicly listed companies on operations, risks, and finance; theseregulations can assist in the transparency and accountability of theprivate sector. There is, as yet, no uniform reporting requirement on theactivities of the private sector. A voluntary initiative, the GlobalReporting Initiative, was established in 1997 to enhance the quality,rigor, and utility of sustainability reporting on the economic, social, andenvironmental performance of corporations and other organizations. Itis now a permanent institution, and more than 100 companies haveadopted its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. To date, the guidelinesand associated documents do not make specific reference to the issue ofconflict resources, apart from a draft supplement for the mining sectorrecommending questions on human rights violations. However, a memberof the Global Reporting Initiative’s board of directors, RogerAdams, has suggested that the new guidelines should incorporate“corporate accountability within war economies.” 55Risks for investors continue to be the cornerstone of mandatoryreporting, rather than the risks facing affected populations where companiesoperate. The two are sometimes linked, however, for example,through the reputation and security risks faced by companies. In theUnited Kingdom, following recommendations from the Turnbull report,prescriptive legislation now requires companies listed on theLondon Stock Exchange “to create systems to identify, evaluate, andmanage their risks and to make a statement on risk management intheir annual report” that accounts for business probity issues. Smartlegislation—the U.K. Pensions Act—requires pension funds to informcustomers about social policy commitments and to disclose ethicalconsiderations in their investment portfolio. This has created a demandfor such data, which most listed companies now provide ona voluntary basis. Such demand for social reporting is also created by