Rights to Health and Cameroon’s Responsible Business Conduct: The Cases of a Hygiene and Health Company and of a Mobile Phone Company
摘要
Our reflection focuses on Cameroon’s responsible business conduct in terms of respect for the right to health as an inclusive human right in the case of a hygiene and health company and that of a mobile phone company. In Cameroon, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives within companies seem to be limited to multinational subsidiaries that transpose to the local level policies that are often decided at the group level. To be responsible businesses, they must adopt transparent ethical behaviour that contributes to sustainable development, including the obligation of protection and respect for the human right to health of the people they expose through their activities. The impacts of these companies on the health of workers, populations and the ecosystem are often negative and thus require reasonable reparation and due diligence. Sometimes, they offer a dangerous work environment and pollute the air, water, and soil. For example, in the telephony sector, the type of technology used in pylons is a threat to populations’ health due to their permanent exposure to X-rays. These negative externalities, which constitute flagrant human rights violations raised by civil society, have so far benefited from incrementalism, administrative tolerance and corruption. When CSR is more about philanthropy than a coherent program responding to a process of correcting sustainable development trajectories, then what is its level of operationalisation and what are the issues that induce these companies to engage in responsible conduct that respects and protects the human right to health?.