Wal-Mart has once again received the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) lowest possible rating in its recently released ”Buying for Equality 2009” guide. HRC’s guide rates retailers and other corporations on their respective company policies that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals including anti-discrimination protections, domestic partner benefits, diversity training, and transgender wellness benefits.  Companies are scored from 0 to 100, with passing retailers receiving HRC’s “green” rating. 

This year, Wal-Mart remains in HRC’s do-not-buy zone with a “red” rating.  Wal-Mart’s overall score, 40 out of 100, remains stagnant from the HRC’s 2008 guide.

Other retailers such as Best Buy, Sears (Kmart), Target, and Walgreens all received HRC’s highest possible rating with scores of 100 out of 100.  Costco, CVS, and Home Depot also received HRC’s green rating with scores of 93, 90, and 85, respectively. 

Since 2007, Wal-Mart’s policies that support LGBT employees have been stalled after Wal-Mart bowed to the pressure of conservative critics and withdrew its support from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.  In doing so, Wal-Mart cited its policy to “avoid highly controversial issues”.

Yet, the real controversy continues to lie within Wal-Mart’s non-inclusive policies which perpetuate the treatment of LGBT individuals as second class citizens with second class rights.  Until Wal-Mart makes the necessary changes to guarantee all its employees equal and fair rights, as HRC suggests, consumers should make the choice to shop elsewhere.

To download the complete Buying for Equality 2009 guide, visit the Human Rights Campaign.

Amnesty International has taken the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to highlight China’s legacy of human rights violations, and to call on the country to change its practices. The Olympics may stand for all that is strong and vibrant in the human spirit, but the Chinese government’s policies of forced labor, censorship, arbitrary police detentions, and unjust executions fall miserably short of these lofty goals.

Wal-Mart sources more than 70% of its products from China, and relies on this atmosphere of abuse and oppression to keep production costs low. The issues Amnesty International raises are precisely why Chinese factories can manufacture products for so little: most workers are too afraid to stand up for better working conditions, and understandably so. Without these intimidating working conditions, Wal-Mart would have a much tougher time keeping its prices so low.

Wal-Mart might be in a joint venture with China, but Wal-Mart’s heart lies with exploitative working conditions, not the Chinese people. Surely once China’s labor standards improve far enough, the retailer will move on to a country where working conditions remain medieval and workers’ rights are nonexistent.

China’s Olympic Legacy [Amnesty International]

The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in collaboration with 40 civil organizations around the world, released a report today on business and human rights. The report, which was presented directly to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, “aims to bring light to situations in which companies have harmed the enjoyment of human rights.”

The report focuses on 159 case studies where businesses have directly interfered with human rights, and Wal-Mart is featured prominently. The company’s anti-union actions - including firing pro-union employees and shutting down stores on the verge of unionizing - has already been documented by human rights organizations, and makes an appearance in this report as well. Wal-Mart’s history of gender discrimination is also mentioned as a breach of human rights.

Download a copy of the report, or read the executive summary below. From ESCR’s website:

This Collective Report on Business and Human Rights aims to bring light to situations in which companies have harmed the enjoyment of human rights. Prepared with the collaboration of 40 civil society organizations around the world, this report surveys cases of alleged human rights abuses by, or involving, companies from a wide range of documented situations in order to illuminate the scope of these incidents and identify modalities by which companies negatively impact the enjoyment of human rights. Further, the report analyzes existing gaps in the protection of human rights in the context of business, and offers recommendations to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and its Member States in its 8th Session, as well as to other UN human rights bodies on how to strengthen business accountability to human rights.

At the same time, this report is envisioned as a space to offer testimony of the actual impacts that business conduct has on the human rights of individuals, communities and indigenous peoples. Discussions on these issues at the UN level have tended to focus on abstract concepts rather than the actual experiences of those affected by company human rights abuses. We deem it critical to include the views and perspectives of those suffering abuse for a proper assessment and resolution of the problem.

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