UN Day, Corporate Accountability

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder that there will be UN day activities on our campus tomorrow, Friday, October 24th. There will be a discussion about Human Trafficking in Beaird Lounge at 3pm. The discussion will feature Famke Janssen, a UN Goodwill Ambassador and international film actress, Dr. Jill Irvine the director of OU's Women's Studies Program, and Zach Messitte, OU's vice provost for international programs. The discussion will be followed by a reception from 5:00-6:00pm.

Also, we will be having our next informal meeting on Sunday, October 26th at 5pm at Katie Baker and Katie Knutter's apartment, Traditions East A304. At this meeting we will be talking about Corporate Accountability. At our last informal meeting, we agreed to look into the human rights records of some corporations on our campus (Among them, ConocoPhilips, Starbucks, Wendy's, Coca Cola, and businesses in the bookstore.) We mentioned others (Dell, Apple, Nike) that should be looked into - if you would like to research these or any other corporations on our campus, please bring what you find to share with everyone at Sunday's meeting. Please see the attached documents from Sarah Whitten and her message at the bottom of this email for more info.

Finally, we will have a brainstorming session on Wednesday, October 29th at 7pm for our Oklahoma AI State Meeting, scheduled for February 7th. We will meet in the Bookmark cafe (in the basement of Bizzell library) and then head up to a study room. If you arrive late or can't find the group, call Will on his cell phone at (918) 669-2372.

Thanks everyone and see you soon,
Sarah Warmker



Hey guys,

Here's some info I found on the Amnesty site about corporate accountability. It has parts of the UN's Norms of Business and Amnesty's explanation of different ways that companies can be complicit with human rights abuses. It also has the articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that deal with labor. It think this will give us basic concepts that we can all agree upon to help us harness our efforts and produce more eloquent and powerful communication with others. The page I got it from is full of other awesome information.

I also had the idea that we could create a Code of Labor Conduct that states particular labor rights, human rights, and environmental rights criteria that a company must uphold before the university does particular business (sell items on campus, use the OU logo, etc) with it. This would be longlasting after we were gone, and it would hold the university accountable.

Let me know what you guys think about this idea! I can't wait to see what kind of discussion we can get going this Sunday!

Sarah Whitten