scholarly journals The Case for Leverage-Based Corporate Human Rights Responsibility

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stepan Wood
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
John Ruggie ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACT:Should companies’ human rights responsibilities arise, in part, from their “leverage”—their ability to influence others’ actions through their relationships? Special Representative John Ruggie rejected this proposition in the United Nations Framework for business and human rights. I argue that leverage is a source of responsibility where there is a morally significant connection between the company and a rights-holder or rights-violator, the company is able to make a contribution to ameliorating the situation, it can do so at modest cost, and the threat to human rights is substantial. In such circumstances companies have a responsibility to exercise leverage even though they did nothing to contribute to the situation. Such responsibility is qualified, not categorical; graduated, not binary; context-specific; practicable; consistent with the social role of business; and not merely a negative responsibility to avoid harm but a positive responsibility to do good.

The Need to Reform the Political Role of the African Union in Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Domestic States: Making States More Accountable and Less Able to Avoid Scrutiny at the United Nations and at the African Union, Using Swaziland to Spotlight the Issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Sarkin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Union ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Universal Periodic Review ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Do So

This article examines how effective the African Union (AU) has been in pushing states to be more democratic in nature and to respect, protect, fulfil and promote the human rights of their inhabitants. It reviews the political role of the AU in this regard using the situation in Swaziland to do so. The article also examines Swaziland at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process as a comparative tool.

scholarly journals Evidence for Hope? Assessing the Role of the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs on the Course of the Palestinian Question

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonca Oğuz Gök
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
World Organization ◽  
Palestinian Question

The Palestinian Question has been at the heart of the United Nations (UN) since its establishment. Yet, the “intergovernmental” mechanisms of the world organization have proven to be largely ineffective in finding a just and sustainable solution to one of the most important and intractable issues of the UN-era. In between political and diplomatic struggles, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs on Palestine are increasingly regarded as the only truly independent and expert voices as well as valuable sources of information regarding the issue. However, the special rapporteurs are one of the least studied aspects of the UN regarding the Palestinian question. Drawing highly on the social constructivist premise on the role of ideas and norms in constructing/deconstructing the legitimacy discourse in international politics, this study attempts to theoretically question and empirically analyse how the “actorness” of the special rapporteurs have the potential to affect the course of the Palestinian question. The article concludes that the mobilization of normative arguments on the Palestinian Question at the transnational level and framing the issue for collective debate supported by technical and knowledge-based legal expertise of UN Special Rapporteurs may confer a renewed legitimizing role for the United Nations.  

scholarly journals THE CHALLENGE OF HUMAN RIGHTS EFFECTIVENESS IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION: WHAT IS THE WORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS?

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (54) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Patricia Ayub da COSTA
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
John Ruggie

ABSTRACT In this paper, one analyzes the restructuring of power in the context of economic globalization and the recognition of the individual as a subject of international law. It recognizes that the strengthening of human rights impacts on state sovereignty, and its effectiveness finds obstacles in face of international trade transnationality and the lack of international accountability for companies' violations of human rights. It identifies the importance of strengthening international human-rights law, international solidarity, cooperation of States and the implementation effective actions. It analyses the work of the United Nations, especially in approving John Ruggie's "Protect, Respect, Remedy" Framework and his Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. It concludes that there has been progress, athough it is necessary to go further in order to implement and give effect to the principles.KEYWORDS: Human Rights; Transnational Companies; States; Globalization; United Nations. RESUMONeste artigo, analisa-se a reestruturação do poder no contexto da globalização econômica e o reconhecimento do indivíduo como sujeito do direito internacional. Reconhece que o fortalecimento dos impactos dos direitos humanos na soberania do Estado e sua eficácia encontram obstáculos em face da transnacionalidade do comércio internacional e da falta de responsabilidade internacional pelas violações de direitos humanos por parte das empresas. Identifica a importância de fortalecer o direito internacional dos direitos humanos, a solidariedade internacional, a cooperação dos Estados e a implementação de ações efetivas. Analisa o trabalho das Nações Unidas, especialmente ao aprovar o Marco de Proteção, Respeito e Remédio de John Ruggie e seus Princípios Orientadores para Empresas e Direitos Humanos. Conclui que houve progresso, embora seja necessário ir mais longe para implementar e dar efeito aos princípios.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Direitos humanos; Empresas Transnacionais; Estados; Globalização; Nações Unidas.

Provision of Remedies for Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Regional Monitoring ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Receive

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.

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.

3. Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Universal Periodic Review ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations

How are human rights put into practice? What does it mean when governments announce that their foreign policy is concerned with promoting and protecting human rights? Where is the enforcement of these rights? ‘Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations’ considers human rights in terms of foreign policy and international law and examines the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is only recently that governments have actively involved themselves in how another state treats its nationals, but enthusiasm for human rights in foreign policy ebbs and flows.

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