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OECD Watch

OECD Watch is an international network of civil society organisations promoting corporate accountability. The purpose of OECD Watch is to inform the wider NGO community about policies and activities of the OECD's Investment Committee and to test the effectiveness of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

OECD Watch was established in March 2003 at a meeting in Amersfoort, Netherlands, groups together NGOs from Europe, the Americas, Australia, Africa and Asia who share a common vision about the need for corporate accountability and sustainable investment. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which can neither impose sanctions nor offer compensation, are at present one of the few mechanisms available for holding companies to account. OECD Watch is committed to testing the Guidelines as part of the wider NGO campaign towards binding regulation of multinationals. Members of OECD Watch are committed to the following goals:

  • Monitoring and contributing to the work of the OECD?s Investment Committee;
  • Testing the effectiveness of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises as a corporate accountability tool;
  • Disseminating information to civil society groups, particularly in developing countries, about the work of the Investment Committee on international investment, corporate governance and the OECD Guidelines;
  • Advising NGOs about filing complaints against companies alleged to have breached the OECD Guidelines.

In 2004 GARDE programme supported OECD Watch project "Promoting civil society use of the OECD Guidelines as a tool for corporate social responsibility (CSR) throughout Europe", afterwards became member of OECD Watch and took part in several OECD Watch activities, e.g. in October 2004 participated in two-day Training and Strategy Seminar on the OECD Guidelines in Berlin, in 2005 prepared the Czech Republic Report for OECD Watch Questionnaire for Review of 5 Years of the Guidelines Implementation.