A/HRC/8/5 page 10 A. Corporate culture 29. Governments are uniquely placed to foster corporate cultures in which respecting rights is an integral part of doing business. This would reinforce steps companies themselves are asked to take to demonstrate their respect for rights, as described in chapter III below. Two approaches are illustrated here. 30. First, governments can support and strengthen market pressures on companies to respect rights. Sustainability reporting can enable stakeholders to compare rights-related performance. Several States, subnational authorities, and stock exchanges are calling for such disclosure.23 Sweden requires independently assured sustainability reports using Global Reporting Initiative guidelines for its State-owned enterprises, and China recently issued an advisory opinion on this subject.24 Some jurisdictions have gone further by redefining fiduciary duties. The recently revised United Kingdom Companies Act requires directors to “have regard” to such matters as “the impact of the company’s operations on the community and the environment”,25 and regulators are increasingly rejecting company attempts to prevent shareholder proposals regarding human rights issues being considered at annual general meetings.26 31. Second, some States are beginning to use “corporate culture” in deciding corporate criminal accountability.27 They examine a company’s policies, rules and practices to determine criminal liability and punishment, rather than basing accountability on the individual acts of 23 Among other examples, the Johannesburg Securities Exchange mandates sustainability reporting, as does France’s law on new economic regulations. 24 “Guidelines for external reporting by Swedish State-owned companies”, adopted 29 November 2007, available at http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/8194/a/93506; and “Instructing opinions about central State-owned enterprises fulfilling social responsibility”, issued by China’s State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, 4 January 2008. 25 Section 172 (1) (d) of the United Kingdom Companies Act (2006), which came into effect 1 October 2007. 26 “Trends in the use of corporate law and shareholder activism to increase corporate responsibility and accountability for human rights” prepared for the Special Representative by the law firm Fried Frank, available at http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/FriedFrank-Memo-Dec-2007.pdf. 27 “Corporate culture as a basis for the criminal liability of corporations” prepared for the Special Representative by the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson, available at http://www.reportsand-materials.org/Allens-Arthur-Robinson-Corporate-Culture-paper-for-Ruggie-Feb-2008.pdf.