Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Grassroots Development ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Stakeholder Consultation ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Abuse

This chapter provides an overview of the book, situating it as a contribution to debates in political science as well as business and human rights literatures. The puzzle central to the book is presented: Does the practice of “stakeholder consultation” contribute to fulfilling the economic rights of people who live in manufacturing communities integral to global supply chains? Why or why not, and under what conditions? This introductory chapter positions the book within broader scholarly debates over the nature of remedy for human rights abuse. It also explores why existing modes of consultation often fall short of addressing the underlying structural factors that perpetuate poverty in manufacturing communities globally (thus bridging literatures on the political economy of grassroots development and industrialization). The chapter previews the empirical contributions of the book—specifically, its engagement with multiple methods and multiple sources of data (e.g., historical, statistical, interview, and participant observation–based data) aimed at uncovering the challenges of stakeholder consultation in theory and practice. The chapter concludes by outlining the succeeding chapters briefly.

Policy Implications of Changes in Stakeholder Consultation

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-162
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Stakeholder Consultation ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Engineering Theory ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

Chapter 6 assesses the prospects for policy reform in the business and human rights field, pointing to the emergence of a worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) model distinct from conventional multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI). The chapter compares the two approaches, analyzes their relative strengths, and argues for pragmatic yet bold new approaches to addressing human rights violations and community members’ right to remedy in the context of light manufacturing. The chapter draws on original participant observation data from a 2017 international conference on these themes, along with primary and secondary source data on emerging methods of community engagement underway in key business sectors within the United States, Bangladesh, and several other settings. It helps place the Dominican cases and the large-N data explored in other chapters in a broader policy framework, drawing special insights from systems engineering theory on problem-solving in failure-prone settings.

Tethered Fates

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Sunk Costs ◽  
Stakeholder Dialogue ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Current State

Global supply chains extend throughout the developing world, but we know surprisingly little about company–community interaction. This book engages multiple sources of data to map the evolution and contemporary scope of “stakeholder dialogue” in the business and human rights arena. It draws on the 7,000-company database of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, and on original interviews with community members in two factory towns in the Dominican Republic, to illustrate economic rights challenges in light manufacturing communities. Tethered Fates maps trends in stakeholder dialogue by region and industry sector globally. It demonstrates that companies tend to engage stakeholders in sectors where the sunk costs are high (such as the extractive sector) rather than in sectors where the threat of exit looms large (such as light manufacturing). The book then offers a view into local community members’ perceptions of the prospects for dialogue with companies and the challenges of everyday life, through comparative case studies of two textile manufacturing towns in the Dominican Republic. Tethered Fates does more than simply explain why stakeholder dialogue often falls short as a vehicle for safeguarding economic rights and promoting community development; it also offers an assessment of the varieties of emerging policy alternatives for moving beyond the current state of practice.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 163-166
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Trend Analysis ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Science Theory

The epilogue summarizes the main findings of the book and explores their broader implications for political science theory, public policy, and corporate supply chain management. It highlights the need for a broad range of data on stakeholder dialogue, from historical to quantitative to qualitative (such as the trend analysis derived from Business and Human Rights Resource Centre data, and the insights of community members gathered through interviews in manufacturing towns, respectively). The epilogue foregrounds our fragile connections along the global supply chain and reiterates the need for innovative approaches to community engagement in settings where the risks of economic rights failure are high but the rewards of more just and equitable development are potentially deep.

scholarly journals Economic Rights under the UN System and the Creation of a Newer International Economic Order

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Shenoy Amritha Viswanath
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Impact

In the beginning of the human rights discourse, emphasis was on civil and political rights. Later, the thrust of the discourse moved to social and economic rights. Economic rights were demanded by the developing world manifesting in the form of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and the New International Economic Order. Due to the untiring efforts of these members, economic rights are reflected, enunciated and promoted in the international human rights instruments created under the aegis of the UN. The OHCHR has an innovative approach towards the guaranteeing of economic rights. For instance, the Office has a human rights approach towards poverty alleviation. It also recognises different duty holders in promoting human rights like the Transnational Corporations apart from the governments and civil society in ensuring human rights (especially in the interlinkages on Business and Human Rights). These new approaches has transformed the promotion of economic rights. The question is whether the international economic order has benefited from the promotion and guaranteeing of the economic rights. The aim of the present article is to analyse the impact of UN efforts in promoting economic rights and its repercussions on the formation of a newer international economic order.

scholarly journals Faith in Our Neighbors: Networks and Social Order in Three Brazilian Favelas

2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Desmond Arias
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Advocacy Networks ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
The Government ◽  
Drug Traffickers

AbstractAfter nearly 20 years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally unable to guarantee the political order necessary to protect the rights of residents in these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoods in the developing world can be brought under control. Based on more than two years of participant observation and interviews in Rio de Janeiro, this article examines how democratic order can be extended to favelas. It argues that networks can link favela residents to organizations in civil society, and state actors can play a critical role in reducing violence and establishing democratic order.

scholarly journals Wages: An Overlooked Dimension of Business and Human Rights in Global Supply Chains

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Genevieve LEBARON
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Living Wages ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Wages – the monetary payments that workers receive from employers in exchange for their labour – are widely overlooked in academic and policy debates about human rights and business in global supply chains. They shouldn’t be. Just as living wages can insulate workers from human rights abuse and labour exploitation, wages that hover around or below the poverty line, compounded by illegal practices like wage theft and delayed payment, leave workers vulnerable to severe labour exploitation and human rights abuse. This article draws on data from a study of global tea and cocoa supply chains to explore the impact of wages on one of the most severe human rights abuses experienced in global supply chains, forced labour. Demonstrating that low-wage workers experience high vulnerability to forced labour in global supply chains, it argues that the role of wages in shaping or protecting workers from exploitation needs to be taken far more seriously by scholars and policymakers. When wages are ignored, so too is a crucial tool to protect human rights and heighten business accountability in global supply chains.

International Human Rights and National Legislatures – Conflict or Balance?

2006 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Vedsted-Hansen ◽  
Ida Elisabeth Koch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe complex and often sensitive interrelationship between international human rights obligations and national governments and legislatures is the subject of debate in the Nordic countries. Criticism has been voiced against the dynamic interpretation of human rights norms and the limitations on legislatures resulting from the judicial activities at the international level, in particular the European Court of Human Rights. Against this background, this article discusses the interdependence between democratic legitimacy and the protection of fundamental rights, as illustrated by recent ECtHR case law. While the need for democracy to be capable of defending itself has been recognised, the ECtHR has emphasised the impact of the rule of law in the context of restrictions of rights as well as the responsibility of domestic authorities to exercise their legislative and other competences as a precondition for being granted the margin of appreciation. The distinction between civil and political rights and socio-economic rights has had significant influence on the discussion of human rights, democracy and the division of powers, and the animosity against entrusting power to settle legal disputes to judicial bodies is particularly strong with regard to socio-economic rights. Therefore, this traditional perception of the normative character of the two sets of human rights is being questioned, and the indispensable role of social, economic and cultural rights in developing stable and sustainable democracies is illustrated by reference to theory and practice applying an integrated approach to the various types of rights. The article concludes with some reflections on the impact of the criticism of dynamic human rights on the future protection of socio-economic rights, and the dilemmas inherent in domestic implementation of evolving international norms.

scholarly journals Corporate Human Rights Obligations under Socio-economic Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 64-102
Author(s):  
Jernej Letnar Černic
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Un Global Compact ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

In the chapter it is examined obligations of business in the field of socio-economic rightsThe author proceeds from the understanding of the importance of socio-economic rights to ensurethe livelihood of people and the creation of human opportunities, as well as their fundamental naturein terms of enjoying civil and political rights. The author is convinced that not only states, but alsocorporations, have certain obligations in the field of socio-economic rights. Because socioeconomicrights are linked to financial resources, corporations can make a significant contribution to securingthem in case of state fragility.The author analyzes international documents, compares national legal systems, as well as othersources (decisions of treaty bodies on human rights), and he concludes that corporate obligationsgain their legitimacy due to the horizontal application of national and international human rights law.It is noted that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines forTransnational Enterprises, the UN Global Compact, the ILO Tripartite Declaration play a significantrole in promoting corporate human rights obligations in the field of socio-economic rights.The author also analyzes the significance of voluntary commitments of both individual corporationsand individual sectors that are generally the part of corporate policy and suggests their questionablelegal nature (lex imperfecta), as they do not provide sanctions for their violation.Analyzing the features of corporate obligations under socio-economic rights, the author takes asa basis the negative and positive dichotomy of human rights, as well as the approach embodied ininternational human rights law on three types of human rights obligations – to respect, protect, ensure.The author concludes that within each of the types of socio-economic rights obligations, corporationshave both preventive (negative and positive) and some corrective (negative and positive) obligations,especially where they control and/or or influence or in proximity of their operations.

scholarly journals Stemming the Flow of Corporate Human Rights Abuses: Incorporating the Ruggie Report in the Common Law Doctrine of Foreign Judgment Enforcement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Erin Matariki Carr
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
The Common ◽  
Foreign Judgment

<p>The eminent case of Aguinda v Chevron Corporation, currently in its twentieth year of litigation, represents a growing phenomenon in international commercial litigation between multinational corporations and victims of human rights abuse from developing nations. In 2011 Aguinda awarded approximately US$18 billion against Chevron for extreme environmental and human rights abuse from oil contamination in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Chevron has removed its assets from Ecuador’s jurisdiction leaving the plaintiffs without remedy. This paper traces Aguinda to Canada where the plaintiffs’ action in Yaiguaje to enforce the judgment to satisfy their debt is stayed. This paper critiques this decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as being unprincipled and failing to consider the wider implications of its decision on the struggle for developing nations to remedy human rights abuses by multinational corporations. This paper argues that the common law doctrine of foreign judgment enforcement must evolve to reflect the needs of modern society. The paper does this by incorporating the “Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights” report released by the United Nations in 2011.</p>

A Genealogy of Community Consultation

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Damage Control ◽  
Community Consultation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Third ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Over Time

This chapter offers an historical overview of poor peoples’ involvement with public and private policymaking that has shaped the business and human rights arena over four decades. The chapter reveals the continuity of constraints on poor peoples’ involvement in policymaking and corresponding limits on their ability to fully claim their economic rights. It outlines three corresponding “eras” in community consultation and draws on primary and secondary sources to trace the evolution of poor peoples’ involvement with state and corporate actors over time through each. The first era, the 1970s–1980s, was characterized by participation as damage control in the wake of large-scale industrial disasters. The second era, the 1990s, was characterized by participation as testimonial with the rise of the 24/7 news cycle and increased attention to sweatshop conditions in global supply chains and corresponding worker testimony. The third era, the 2000s, is characterized by participation as a vehicle for empowerment through the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights (colloquially known as the Ruggie Principles).

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