Survival International v World Wide Fund for Nature: Using the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises as a Means of Ensuring NGO Accountability

Extract

1. INTRODUCTION

In February 2016, Survival International (SI) filed a complaint to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), accusing the WWF of facilitating violent abuse against Baka ‘Pygmies’ forcing them to leave their homeland in Cameroon to make way for a national reserve. This complaint was unique, as it was the first one filed by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) against another NGO using the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD Guidelines),¹ which had been originally designed to handle complaints against transnational corporate entities. In December 2016, the Swiss National Contact Point (‘Swiss NCP’) accepted the complaint for further consideration asserting, in its initial assessment, that the OECD Guidelines could be applicable to non-corporate entities, such as NGOs. The purpose of this article is to provide a commentary on this unprecedented dispute, evaluating the extent to which the OECD Guidelines could be used as a means of accountability against NGOs.