Competition, Choice, and Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-258
Author(s):  
Erika George
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Corporate Performance ◽  
Shareholder Activism ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Responsible Conduct ◽  
Consumer Markets ◽  
Market Consequences ◽  
Rights Issues

Initiatives to promote information about business human rights impacts on the part of civil society activists demonstrate a shifting consciousness and increasing concern that could introduce moral considerations into capital and consumer markets at a scale sufficient to create an incentive for corporate actors to consider the risks particular business practices may present for human rights. This chapter considers how enforcement of corporate commitments to respect human rights could occur through the provision of actionable information on corporate performance to conscious constituencies of investors and consumers. It considers competitive pressures that could be brought to bear on particular industries by virtue of greater transparency, including the connected nature of communication enjoyed by a significant segment of consumers. A connected and concerned community of consumers and investors could leverage concerns into change. It contemplates ways to generate adverse market consequences for business activities that have adverse human rights consequences. Specifically, it considers the changes generated by shareholder activism on human rights issues and the advances achieved by a “worker driven, consumer powered and market enforced” fair food program. It also considers examples of corporations that have reaped rewards for responsible conduct consistent with the responsibility to respect human rights. This chapter argues that expectations on business with respect to avoiding adverse human rights impacts and complicity in abuses are increasing and that choices will reflect concerns aligned with rewarding responsible business conduct.

From Voluntary to Obligatory

2021 ◽  
pp. 259-324
Author(s):  
Erika George
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Social License To Operate ◽  
Social License ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Multistakeholder Initiatives ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
Industry Sectors ◽  
Rights Issues

This chapter examines what corporations say they are doing to address human rights risks presented by particular business practices in particular contexts. It offers an overview of the different strategies being used by transnational business enterprises to respond to concerns expressed by investors, consumers, and affected communities. Among the self-regulation strategies used by businesses examined are participation in multistakeholder initiatives designed to address human rights issues, human rights impact assessments, audits and certifications, supply chain contract provisions, and corporate responses to ratings and reports by concerned stakeholder constituencies. The chapter presents the findings of a discourse analysis of codes created by competing corporations in selected industry sectors assessing over time the extent to which codes incorporate reference to human rights standards and refer to emerging self-regulation strategies. Corporate responses to allegations of complicity in abuse are analyzed. The chapter argues that the discursive frame asserted by corporate responsibility incorporating rights increasingly treats voluntary norms as obligatory to maintaining a “social license” to operate.

11. Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine (Cricket) Keating ◽  
Cynthia Burack
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Important Development ◽  
Queer People ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Rights Issues

This chapter examines the issue of the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people (LGBTI). In recent years, LGBTI groups have used the language and frameworks of human rights to organize against state, civil society, religious, and interpersonal violence and discrimination. The broadening of the human rights framework to address issues of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has been an important development in both the human rights and the LGBTI movements. The chapter begins with a discussion of SOGI rights as human rights, focusing on questions such as the central human rights issues for LGBTI people; how these groups have organized to address these challenges through a human rights framework; and the challenges faced by LGBTI human rights advocates and what successes they have had. It also considers critiques of SOGI human rights activism and concludes with a case study of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

scholarly journals STUDI ISLAM DALAM KAJIAN HUKUM KELUARGA ISLAM DI INDONESIA

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Sadari Sadari
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Islamic Family Law ◽  
Rights Issues

This article offers a study of h}udu>di> (limit) in Islamic family law contained in the Indonesian Compilation of Islamic Law (KHI). The study of h}udu>di is nothing other than the process of desacralization that KHI becomes progressive in line with the development of modernity and in the context of Indonesian-ness. To that end, this article makes two efforts, firstly, by rejecting the idea that gives no attention to limit in one hand, and secondly, by strengthening the thoughts of scholars who offer new ijtihad both in its concept until to methodology. Thought that strengthens it came from Syrian figure, namely Muh}ammad Shah}ru>r, through a plausibility structure. His study of hududsupported Nurcholish Madjid idea about the de-sacralization, so as to perform the coherence between KHI to human rights issues, democracy, nation-state, civil society, and constitutionalism. So this article supports the spirit of de-sacralization - in addition to not abandon its sacralization - initiated by Nurcholish Madjid. The source of this study is KHI, by using the hududparadigm, that based on a maxim of sabat al-naswa harakah al-muhtawa, meaning that the text is permanent , but the content moves. So that the rule of law is always rooted in liminality based on the text, which is the pivot of study centered on the text toward the context, not vice versa.

9. Global Civil Society and Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlies Glasius ◽  
Doutje Lettinga
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Rights Issues

This chapter examines the relationship between global civil society (GCS), defined as ‘people organizing to influence their world’, and the normative ideal of a ‘global rule-bound society’. It first explains the concept of GCS before discussing some of the GCS actors involved in human rights issues, with a particular focus on their background, methods, and influence. It then decribes three kinds of activities of individuals and organizations in civil society in relation to human rights corresponding to three different phases: shifting norms, making law, and monitoring implementation. These activities are illustrated with two case studies: norm-shifting activities in relation to economic and social rights, and lawmaking and monitoring activities in relation to the International Criminal Court.

Women’s Participation in Informal Peace Processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal ◽  
Agathe Christien
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Rights Issues

Abstract Women’s greater presence in informal peace processes is often noted in works on peace processes, but there has been little systematic evidence about this involvement. This article is the first systematic study of women’s participation in informal peace processes. We find that women are a significant presence in civil society efforts to forge peace outside formal negotiation rooms: nearly three-fourths of identifiable informal peace processes have clear evidence of involvement from women’s groups. This research indicates that women advocate to be included in formal peace processes, work to legitimate formal negotiations and organize for peace, advocate for the inclusion of women’s rights issues in the final peace agreement, provide information on human rights violations to participants in the formal peace process, engage in local conflict resolution, and advocate as partisans for one or another side in the conflict.

Global Policy Initiatives to Regulate Business Responsibility and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-104
Author(s):  
Erika George
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Rights Issues

In view of the shortcomings of corporate law and international law, this chapter argues that pragmatic global policy instruments can provide a strong foundation for promoting changes in business practices and providing greater protection by closing the governance gaps that place human rights and the environment at risk. This chapter traces the trajectory of international policy initiatives advanced to address the governance gap culminating in the endorsement of the UN Framework and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which seek to translate human rights issues into corporate responsibility imperatives. Based on the author’s analysis of primary UN documents and commentaries; interviews with different stakeholder constituencies in the policymaking process, including corporate representatives and rights activists; ethnographic research, including participation in and observations of the annual proceedings of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights; and interviews with members of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the chapter will show that while the consensus formed around global policy instruments is fragile, certain aspects of the Framework appear to be gaining traction as authoritative among those stakeholders best situated to address or avoid human rights abuses.

Part IV Activities of Organizations, Ch.12 Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelton Dinah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Standard Setting ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Civil Society Networks ◽  
Rights Issues

This chapter examines the express and implied powers of international organizations to address human rights issues, standard-setting by such organizations, and the structure and functioning of the bodies and institutions they have established to consider this issue. The analysis focuses on inter-governmental organizations, but the discussion refers at times to the vast array of civil society and non-governmental organizations that have contributed immeasurably to the development of human rights law, in particular through their formal and informal participation in the work of inter-governmental organizations, their subsidiary organs, and treaty bodies. In fact, the creation of some non-governmental organizations and civil society networks preceded and to a certain extent stimulated the formation of intergovernmental organizations.

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