The Federal Council is due to release its latest assessment of the state of the Swiss commodities sector in the coming days, five years on from its “Background Report: Commodities.” Despite the countless scandals that have hit Swiss commodity trading companies, the government has failed to take effective measures to mitigate corruption and other risks. Public Eye is issuing an advance “shadow report” analysing the government’s “sins of omission” and outlining feasible ways in which Switzerland can and must fulfil its responsibility to help combat the resource curse...

On the topic of human rights, recommendation no.11 in the Background Report was to set up a multi stakeholder working group comprising representatives of trading companies, their lobby group, non-governmental organisations and the authorities. The group was tasked with providing guidance on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the commodities trading sector... [The] guidance was published [today]. Yet here too the Federal Council opted for a voluntary approach: commodity trading companies are free to decide whether and how they wish to implement the UN Guiding Principles. In contrast, the Responsible Business Initiative would oblige companies to implement those Principles...