Ethics in business?

Kompania Piwowarska, Kulczyk Investments, PKN Orlen, Totalizator Sportowy and Tauron Polska Energia are sponsors of the Polish Olympic team going to the European Championships in Baku. All these organisations declare their commitment to responsible business and maintaining high ethical standards in business based on the respect for human rights and transparency. Despite this, as we have reported on many occasions, over 100 political prisoners are detained in Azerbaijan and the regime of President Aliyev has effectively crushed civil society organisations.

“We have approached the sponsors of the Polish Olympic Team asking them to withdraw from sponsoring or to express their strong objection to the policy of the Azerbaijani authorities”, says Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska.

“We believe that sponsoring the sports event taking place in Azerbaijani not only goes against the declared standards but also damages the image of Polish business”, reads the letters sent by the HFHR to the sponsors of the Polish Olympic team.

“We believe that statements on corporate social responsibility shouldn’t be empty words, which means they may not be abandoned in view of expected marketing profits for a company”, says Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska.

The European Games that start in June this year will be the first sports event of that type in Europe patterned after the Pan American and African Games. Poland sends a sports team and official state delegation to the Games opening ceremony in Baku. The authoritarian regime of Ilham Aliyeva takes advantage of this event to strengthen its position on the international arena by quietly persecuting inconvenient activists.