Corporate Social Responsibility Of International Offshore Oil Companies In Cameroon

Corporate Social Responsibility has emerged as a new paradigm over the last decades andattracted many researchers’ attention. However, literature review shows that there is a lack forresearch on Corporate Social Responsibility at operational level and for specific industry. Theauthors are particularly interested in studying Oil and Gas industry as companies from thisfield are viewed as leading sector in CSR championing but recent incidents in the sector haveraised researchers’ doubt on the companies’ real engagement with CSR. In order to shed lighton the literature gap, the thesis specifically studies the implementation of CSR. This paperintends to provide an analysis of corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSR Codes)of the international offshore oil industry (Sinopec Addax petroleum) operating in Cameroonwith the provisions embodied in the international legal framework system, such as the UnitedNations Declaration of Human Rights and the Fundamental Conventions of the InternationalLabor Organization. Given the usual structure that CSR Codes tend to follow, the analysis hasbeen developed around the three most emphasized issues–namely, labor and human rights,environment and socio-economic issues–which in turn have been divided into subsections ofCSR Codes. One can argue that if CSR Codes are actually based on the new internationalsustainable development law, which may be used to verify CSR Codes’ compliance and ifpossible enforcement, while hoping CSR Codes can be seen as a common understandingframework to improve sustainable development operations in Cameroon.