Assessing the roles of multi-stakeholder initiatives in advancing the business and human rights agenda

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (887) ◽  
pp. 1027-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Jerbi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Direct Response ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
The Future ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

AbstractGrowing reliance on ‘multi-stakeholder initiatives’ (MSIs) aimed at improving business performance with respect to specific human rights-related challenges has become a significant dimension of the evolving corporate responsibility agenda over recent decades. A number of such initiatives have developed in direct response to calls for greater state and corporate accountability in areas of weak governance and violent conflict. This article examines the evolution of key MSIs in light of the 2011 adoption of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and addresses challenges facing these initiatives in the future.

Exploring care home providers’ public commitments to human rights in light of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 357-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The United Nations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore care home providers’ public communications covering their commitments to respecting residents’ the human rights. The discussion considers the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and a domestic legal and regulatory human rights framework. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative content analysis undertaken in 2017 of 70 websites of England’s largest commercial care home providers. Findings There are strong value-based public commitments in the websites of many English care home providers, which may or may not be interpreted as expressing their commitments to human rights. Research limitations/implications Research was limited to websites, which are public facing and marketing tools of care home providers. This does not provide inferences regarding the practical implementation of value-based statements or human-rights-based procedures or policies. This paper does not make any value judgements regarding either the public communications of care home providers or normative claims regarding human rights and care home service provision. Practical implications There is a need for clarification and debate about the potential role and added value of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the UNGPs’ operating principles within the English residential care sector. Further exploration of the relationship between personalisation/person-centred care and human rights might be useful. Originality/value This paper introduces the UNGPs and corporate responsibility to respect human rights to the debate on human rights, personalised/person-centred care, safeguarding and care homes in England. It adds a new perspective to discussions of the human rights obligations of care home providers.

scholarly journals Canadian Mining Internationally and the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 51-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara L. Seck
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Home State ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Context ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Corporate Social

SummaryBetween 2005 and 2011, there was much debate, both within Canada and at the United Nations (UN), over what role home states should play in the regulation and adjudication of human rights harms associated with transnational corporate conduct. In Canada, this debate focused upon concerns related to global mining that led to a series of government, opposition and multi-stakeholder reports and proposals. These culminated in 2010 with the appointment of an Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor and the defeat of Bill C-300, An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Meanwhile, at the UN Human Rights Commission/Council, John G. Ruggie was appointed Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights (SRSG). Ruggie’s work led to the 2008Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rightsand the 2011Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights(the latter designed to “operationalize” the former). While both documents highlight state duties to protect against human rights violations by businesses and the need for access to remedies by victims, the role of home states in this regard was contested. This article compares the developments in Canada between 2005 and 2011 with the work of the SRSG in relation to the home state duty to protect human rights in the transnational corporate context. It also offers reflections on the implications of the inevitability of industry and industry lawyer participation for the development of home state legal obligations.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing Corporate Accountability in International Law: Models for a Business and Human Rights Treaty

2021 ◽  
pp. 146-173
Author(s):  
Nadia Bernaz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
State Support ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Future Business

This article conceptualizes corporate accountability under international law andintroduces an analytical framework translating corporate accountability into seven core elements.Using this analytical framework, it then systematically assesses four models that could be used ina future business and human rights treaty: the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business andHuman Rights model, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights model, the progressive model, andthe transformative model. It aims to contribute to the BHR treaty negotiation process by clarifyingdifferent options and possible trade-offs between them, while taking into account political realities.Ultimately, the article argues in favour of the BHR treaty embracing a progressive model of corporateaccountability, which combines ambitious development of international law with realistic prospectsof state support.

Transnational Corporations and the Duty to Respect Basic Human Rights

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis G. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Legal Duty ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACT:In a series of reports the United Nations Special Representative on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations has emphasized a tripartite framework regarding business and human rights that includes the state “duty to protect,” the TNC “responsibility to respect,” and “appropriate remedies” for human rights violations. This article examines the recent history of UN initiatives regarding business and human rights and places the tripartite framework in historical context. Three approaches to human rights are distinguished: moral, political, and legal. It is argued that the tripartite framework’s grounding of the responsibility of TNCs to respect human rights is properly understood as moral and not merely as a political or legal duty. A moral account of the duty of TNCs to respect basic human rights is defended and contrasted with a merely strategic approach. The main conclusion of the article is that only a moral account of the basic human rights duties of TNCs provides a sufficiently deep justification of “the corporate responsibility to respect human rights” feature of the tripartite framework.

The Future of Human Rights: A View from the United Nations

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Summit ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peace And Development ◽  
Made In

Ever since the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945, human rights have constituted one of its three pillars, along with peace and development. As noted in a dictum coined during the World Summit of 2005: “There can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and neither without respect for human rights.” But while progress has been made in all three domains, it is with respect to human rights that the organization's performance has experienced some of its greatest shortcomings. Not coincidentally, the human rights pillar receives only a fraction of the resources enjoyed by the other two—a mere 3 percent of the general budget.

From a Stark Utopia to Everyday Utopias

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 575-606
Author(s):  
Michelle Staggs Kelsall
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Karl Polanyi ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Human Rights Due Diligence

This article considers the emergence of the Business and Human Rights agenda at the United Nations (UN). It argues that the agenda can be seen as an example of the UN Human Rights Council attempting to institutionalise everyday utopias within an emerging global public domain. Utilising the concept of embedded pragmatism and tracing the underlying rationale for the emergence of the agenda to the work of Karl Polanyi, the article argues that the Business and Human Rights agenda seeks to institutionalise human rights due diligence processes within transnational corporations in order to create a pragmatic alternative to the stark utopia of laissez-faire liberal markets. It then provides an analytical account of the implications of human rights due diligence for the modes and techniques business utilises to assess human rights harm. It argues that due to the constraints imposed by the concept of embedded pragmatism and the normative indeterminacy of human rights, the Business and Human Rights agenda risks instituting human rights within the corporation through modes and techniques that maintain human rights as a language of crisis, rather than creating the space for novel, everyday utopias to emerge.

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