ABSTRACT
Around the year 2000 there seems to have been a particular surge in the formation of coalitions addressing specific issues, at least in the extractive industries, although initiatives such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the WWF/Unilever Marine Stewardship Council project for sustainable fisheries started earlier. Initiatives such as the Marine Stewardship Council and the Forest Stewardship Council have had a major impact on their respective sectors. The coalitions include companies active in these sectors and set challenging but achievable standards. The Voluntary Principles propose a sequence of steps that a company should undertake when considering the use of security, armed or otherwise. The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights were developed between leading extractive industry companies including BP and Shell, human rights NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and the US State Department and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
