scholarly journals Ground-Breaking? An Empirical Assessment of the Draft Business and Human Rights Treaty

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 179-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tori Loven Kirkebø ◽  
Malcolm Langford
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Empirical Assessment ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Empirical Methodology

In this essay, we examine empirically whether the revised draft of the business and human rights (BHR) treaty is a normative advance on the existing jungle of global instruments. Since the 1970s, almost one hundred global corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards have been adopted, half of them addressing human rights. See Figure 1 from our global CSR database, below. What is novel about the current treaty-drafting process within the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) is that it aims to develop a comprehensive standard that would hold states legally accountable for regulating business. The question is whether this is possible. Drawing on our work on the “commitment curve,” we begin theoretically and point out why one should hold modest expectations about the process and treat strong text with skepticism as much as celebration. Using an empirical methodology, we then compare the HRC's Revised Draft Legally Binding Instrument (Revised Draft LBI) with existing standards, and find that while the draft contains a healthy dose of incremental pragmatism, its significant advances require a degree of circumspection about its strengths and prospects.

scholarly journals Betting on the Wrong (Trojan) Horse: CSR and the Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Florian WETTSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Trojan Horse ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Critical Management ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Full Swing

Abstract Ten years after the publication of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), implementation efforts are in full swing. Companies in particular have used their existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) structures to make sense of and implement Pillar II of the UNGPs. This process has led to a co-optation of the business and human rights (BHR) agenda. One manifestation of such co-optation is the instrumentalization of CSR to confront and undermine the growing trend towards binding BHR legislation. Accordingly, this contribution conceptualizes Pillar II implementation as a process of domestication, co-optation and confrontation of the BHR agenda. It makes sense of this process by juxtaposing it with long-standing critique against CSR put forth particularly by critical management scholars, raising the question whether CSR is indeed well-equipped to drive BHR implementation efforts within companies.

scholarly journals The Impact of the UN Guiding Principles on Business Attitudes to Observing Human Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Peter MUCHLINSKI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Un Global Compact ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This contribution discusses business attitudes to human rights obligations and how the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) have affected them. These are best understood historically through a number of periods. The first, between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s, coincides with intergovernmental organization-based codifications relevant to corporate social responsibility. Business representatives were highly defensive towards extensive international legal obligations not only in relation to human rights but to corporate social responsibility (CSR) more generally. This was followed by a period of ‘voluntarism’. By the 1990s, businesses had accepted that there could be a link between their operations and human rights violations but continued to reject binding legal duties. Instead, businesses opted for voluntary codes of conduct based on individual corporate, or sectoral, initiatives. It was out of this period that the UN Global Compact emerged. ‘Voluntarism’ continues into the third period, the era of the UNGPs. The UNGPs can be characterized by ‘institutionalized voluntarism’ achieved through the framework for business and human rights represented by the UNGPs. Each period will be examined followed by a concluding section that considers business attitudes to an emerging fourth period that introduces legal obligations through mandatory due diligence laws.

scholarly journals Business and Human Rights

Management ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Wettstein ◽  
Michael Santoro ◽  
Anita Ramasastry ◽  
Penelope Simons
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Selection Of

Business and human rights have not traditionally been addressed or theorized in close connection to each other. Rather, human rights have been seen as the exclusive domain of the state, that is, as a legal or political concept with little relevance or implication for companies. This view has changed dramatically in recent decades. There is now a broad interdisciplinary and dynamic discussion on the potential human rights responsibilities of business. While a systematic debate on the issue can be traced back at least to the mid-1990s, contributions to this debate have increased substantially in the wake of John Ruggie’s appointment as the United Nations Special Representative on Business and Human rights in 2005. This article structures this evolving debate and guides readers to the most relevant sources in the field. The debate has attracted contributions from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives. This review is limited to contributions published in the broader management and business ethics literature and a selection of key contributions from the legal literature on the topic. Furthermore, with just a few exceptions, it includes only contributions that explicitly refer to human rights in the context of business. Articles that relate to or inform the debate on business and human rights, such as discussions on corporate social responsibility or on human rights in general, but lack the specific connection of both fields were not included.

scholarly journals The Connection between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Respect for Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-127
Author(s):  
Ana Čertanec
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Business Entities ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The purpose of this article is to study the connection between corporate respect for human rights and corporate social responsibility. The author argues that business entities have a responsibility to respect human rights and that this responsibility forms part of their corporate social responsibility. The author defends the view that business and human rights issues are distinct from corporate social responsibility issues in their legal nature and content, while the strategic approach in the implementation of these concepts is the same. The author further examines whether voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives include human rights, and how society understands the connection between the two. The conclusions of the article shed light on the interconnection between these two terms.

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