scholarly journals Business and Human Rights in ASEAN: Lessons from the Palm Oil Sector in Malaysia

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Andika AB. Wahab
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Member States ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
Guiding Principles

The release of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011 aims to address gaps in human rights governance by setting a standard and corporate culture of respecting human rights. As part of the state responsibility to implement these guiding principles, some member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have already embarked preliminary steps towards establishing their respective National Action Plan on Business and Human rights (NAPBHR), while others are still lag behind. This article describes current development on business and human rights in the region. Drawing from the palm oil sector’s experience in Malaysia, this study aims to provide lessons for ASEAN member states to contemplate when developing their NAPBHR. In this article, I argue that while some large palm oil companies have shown modest progress in realizing their human rights obligation, challenges emerge in many forms including the lack of leadership, collaboration and ambition to steer and scale up industry transformation on human rights across supply chain. Equally important, challenges around certification scheme depict that it is not the only solution in persuading respect to human rights. Meaningful values transfer often overlooked in certification practice resulting in typical "ticking the audit box" exercise without understanding principles behind it. As such, the development of NAPBHR among the ASEAN member states should reflect on these reality and challenges.

scholarly journals Human Rights Anchored in Business: Practice and Challenges in the Palm Oil Sector in Malaysia

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Andika AB. Wahab
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Oil Sector ◽  
Sustainability Standards ◽  
Direct Market ◽  
Market Pressure

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights aims to address gaps in human rights governance by setting a standard and corporate culture of respecting human rights. In Malaysia, despite growing requirements for sustainable production, the palm oil sector has been implicated in various corporate human rights violations. This article discusses how do three public listed companies in the palm oil sector in Malaysia perform their obligation to respect human rights? This article argues that while large palm oil companies have shown modest progress in realizing their human rights obligation – the lack of regulatory framework, resources, direct market pressure and membership to sustainability standards continue to serve as critical challenges in compensating the gaps in human rights governance.

scholarly journals The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: National Action Plans Toward Corporation Responsibility

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Ketut Supasti Dharmawan ◽  
Desak Putu Dewi Kasih ◽  
I Gede Agus Kurniawan ◽  
Putu Aras Samsithawrati
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The Government

As a global principal, corporations have the obligation to comply with national and international hard law of human rights, respect soft laws and global standards. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs) of 2011 were unanimously endorsed by the Human Rights Council and are respected as a global standard that stipulates that corporations should respect human rights when conducting their business activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the scope and focus of National Action Plans (NAPs) by comparing the Netherlands NAP on Human Rights (2013) is compared to the UK’s updated NAP of 2016 with the aim of providing ideas and good examples of a NAP for Indonesia. This study used normative legal method. It is considered to be a valuable lesson both for developed and developing countries that for practical matters it is highly important to create and implement a NAP for the implementation of the GPs. Fortunately, Indonesia in June 2017 has launched a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP). The burden responsibility to carry out the NAP on Business and Human Rights to corporation to be implemented strongly rests on the government authorities both central government and all levels authorities, including the local level, have the duty to implement human rights obligation, including to convince corporations that upholding the GPs will ultimately be to their benefit.

scholarly journals Assessing the Effectiveness of Non-State-Based Grievance Mechanisms in Providing Access to Remedy for Rightsholders: A Case Study of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Mark WIELGA ◽  
James HARRISON
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The United Nations

Abstract This article explores different approaches to assessing the effectiveness of non-state-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms (NSBGMs) in achieving access to remedy for rightsholders. It queries the approach that has been widely adopted as a result of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which focuses on the procedural aspects of grievance mechanisms. Rather, it stresses the importance of analysing the outcomes of cases for rightsholders. This article tests this hypothesis by undertaking comprehensive empirical research into the complaint mechanism of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). RSPO is found to perform well when judged according to the UNGPs’ effectiveness criteria. However, it performs poorly when individual cases are assessed to ascertain the outcomes that are achieved for rightsholders. The article therefore argues for the importance of equivalent scrutiny of outcomes in relation to other NSBGMs and provides an approach and accompanying methodology that can be utilized for that purpose.

A Decade of UNGPs in India: Progressive Policy Shifts, Contested Implementation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Vasanthi SRINIVASAN ◽  
Parvathy VENKATACHALAM
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Progressive Policy ◽  
Policy Shifts

Abstract The decade of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) coincides with India’s National Voluntary Guidelines on businesses’ social, environmental, and economic responsibilities (NVGs) and the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) – an updated version of the NVGs. Human rights are one of the core principles in both guidelines and they draw upon the ‘Protect–Respect–Remedy’ framework of the UNGPs. The NVGs and NGRBC go beyond the UNGPs by requiring organizations not only to respect human rights, but also to promote them in their spheres of influence. Several factors, however, derailed the implementation of this progressive policy shift. This article explores the challenges in implementation and calls for the multiple actors involved to work together and shape a collaborative action plan for effective implementation of the NGRBC in the next decade. The authors reiterate the need for alternative lenses to frame the responsible business agenda within developing countries through positive obligations.

scholarly journals When Rights Enter the CSR Field: British Firms’ Engagement with Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvise Favotto ◽  
Kelly Kollman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Global Markets ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Market Competitiveness ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Corporate Social

AbstractThe adoption of the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights by the United Nations (UNGPs) in 2011 created a new governance instrument aimed at improving the promotion of human rights by business enterprises. While reaffirming states duties to uphold human rights in law, the UNGPs called on firms to promote the realization of human rights within global markets. The UNGPs thus have sought to embed human rights more firmly within the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to use CSR practices to improve corporate human rights accountability. In this paper, we explore how this incorporation of human rights into the CSR field has affected the business practices and public commitments British firms have made to promote human rights. We analyse the CSR reports published by the 50 largest British firms over a 20-year period starting in the late 1990s and interview senior CSR managers of these firms. We find that these firms have expanded how they articulate their responsibility for human rights over time. These commitments however remain largely focused on improving management practices such as due diligence and remediation procedures. Firms are often both vague and selective about which substantive human rights they engage with in light of their concerns about their market competitiveness and broader legitimacy. These outcomes suggest that, while firms cannot completely resist the normative pressures exerted by the CSR field, they retain significant resources and agency in translating such pressure into concrete practices.

Holding Companies Responsible? The Criminal Liability of Australian Corporations for Extraterritorial Human Rights Violations

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radha Ivory ◽  
Anna John
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Criminal Investigation ◽  
Corporate Misconduct ◽  
Holding Companies ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Guiding Principles

Allegations of extraterritorial corporate misconduct illustrate the global dimensions of Australia’s challenge to implement the United Nations (‘UN’) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (‘Guiding Principles’).In the mid-1990s, companies in the BHP Billiton group faced claims that they had polluted a river in Papua New Guinea, thereby causing damage to the customary lands and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples.Less than a decade later, the Australian Federal Police commenced a criminal investigation against an Australian-Canadian joint venture for alleged support of government violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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