(from CCC newsletter 11 July 99)

LEGAL BRIEFS

Much Activity in Belgium During the past Six Months

A law on socially-responsible production has been passed by the Belgian Parliament. The law, which takes the ILO’s basic or human rights conventions as its starting point, specifies that a certificate for companies and a label for products should be developed.

A committee consisting of representatives of trade unions, NGOs, industry, and government will be set up to take this initiative further. An appeals commision will be set up as well, for industry to appeal decisions on granting (or withdrawing) the certificate and for all parties to register complaints with. This commision also has to give advice on procedures and sanctions in the event of violations. The whole set up falls under the responsibility of the department of economic affairs, and they are required to make yearly reports.

Both the Flemish CCC and the CCC in the French-speaking part of Belgium welcome the law as a starting point for discussions on political responsibilities, but find the current text very unclear as to how the proposed measures should be put into effect.

Another law was proposed to make some acts that are criminal under Belgian law punishable when committed outside the country -- extraterritorial application of a law. (This is already the case for sexual molestation of children, for example.) With this proposed law it would be possible to prosecute people ( or companies) in Belgium who have violated certain social rights abroad. This proposed law, however, was not approved.

On the issue of disclosing company information to the public, an amendment to the Belgian law on fair trade practices has been put forward. This law states the principle that the seller of a product has the obligation to answer questions from the buyer, if those questions determine the buyers' choice. Currently the determining factors are limited to quality, price, and certain environmental items. Under the amendment, social factors would be added to that list of determining factors. The amendment further proposes to extend the work of the commission that currently makes recommendations in relation to the environment on companies’ advertising and publicity. Under the proposed law, this commision would also give advice on publicity and advertising (and certification) on social aspects. It is also proposed that the commision develop a sort of code on ethical publicity, that is any publicity using social argumentation, including publicity that demands charity of people. The commisson should decide if this code should be binding or voluntary. An important point in the proposed amendment is that it states that NGOs should be able to act as legal claimants, in other words they should have the right to take companies to the court if they feel their promotional materials present false or misleading information. At this time in Belgium only companies can file suit against each other on these grounds.