Business and human rights versus corporate social responsibility: Integration for victim remedies (original) (raw)

Corporate responsibility for human rights violations

European Integration Studies, 2021

The international legal liability of companies for human rights violations is a very current issue, since nowadays multinational and transnational corporations more and more frequently violate human rights. However, the establishment of the direct international legal liability of business actors for human rights violations is a long and difficult process. The present study seeks to analyse the efforts of the United Nations in this regard.

Corporate (Non-)Accountability and Human Rights

Asian Journal of Social Science, 2018

The role of business in violations of human rights has been at the heart of international debates for decades. As early as the 1970s attempts were made at the UN by Global South nations (known as the G-77) to establish internationally-binding mechanisms to address corporate violations of human rights. Ultimately, those attempts were watered down into “codes of conduct”. In the early 1990s, the “Washington Consensus” was used to steer states to deregulate and restructure their economies in a race-to-the-bottom that placed emphasis upon integrating the global economy over human rights and environmental protections. Although corporate violations existed before, it was only at this juncture that many human rights cases were brought into public view. Some litigation was pursued, but it was most often in tort, and sometimes in criminal courts. This article argues that the existing regional human rights courts have bolstered corporate human rights, while at the same time have remained on t...

Human Rights and Corporate Accountability: Advocating for Corporate Social Responsibility

The article “Human Rights and Corporate Accountability: Advocating for Corporate Social Responsibility” delves into the critical intersection of human rights corporate accountability and the promotion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It explores the imperative need for responsible business conduct concerning human rights and environmental protection within the framework of CSR. The study emphasizes the challenges faced in ensuring effective investor accountability and proposes a redesign of CSR clauses to incorporate international standards of responsible conduct. By advocating for new clauses on ‘investor human rights and environmental obligations’ the article aims to enhance accountability, clarify mechanisms for foreign investor liability, and the importance of access to remedy for affected communities. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on aligning corporate practices with human rights principles, promoting ethical business conduct.

Corporate Human Rights Violations: global prospects for legal action.

This book develops an analysis of the historical, political and legal contexts behind current demands by NGOs and the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold corporations accountable for their human rights violations. Based on an analysis of the range of mechanisms of accountability that currently exist, it argues that those demands are a response to the failure of neo-liberal politics that have dominated the practice of politics and law since the emergence of this debate in its current form in the 1970s.

The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: A Status Review

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss a wide range of significant developments that have emerged in the wake of the UNs endorsement of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs) in June 2011. In particular, the paper offers a preliminary assessment of how the GPs’ corporate responsibility to respect human rights has been interpreted and to what extent it has been operationalised through government action, business behaviour and the praxis of other social actors. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a comprehensive assessment of a number of key developments related to Pillar 2 of the GPs – concerned with the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. More specifically, the paper considers a range of elements relating to corporate human rights due diligence, including: establishing a corporate human rights policy; the undertaking of human rights impact assessment; integrating findings of impact assessment, and; corporate human rights reporting. Findings – Based on the assessment of recent developments and initiatives, the paper suggests that the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, as expressed in Pillar 2 of the GPs, embodies the culmination of significant progress in the sphere of corporate accountability. In doing so, the paper documents a plethora of innovations in regulation and praxis, led by actors in government and the corporate sector, civil society organisations, labour unions and others, in the areas of human rights due diligence, impact assessment and reporting. Yet overall, change is slow and partial and the results achieved are still unsatisfactory. Severe business-related human rights abuses remain endemic in many industry sectors and in many countries. Research limitations/implications – The implementation of the GPs is at a key stage of development, with a multitude of initiatives and actors attempting to develop and influence new forms of corporate governance. This paper provides an overview and assessment of these key developments. Originality/value – This paper provides an important assessment and synthesis of key developments related to corporate responsibility for human rights. Keywords - Human rights, Supply chain, Impact assessment, Due diligence, Corporate accountability, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights Paper type - Conceptual paper

The Role of Civil Society and Human Rights Defenders in Corporate Accountability

Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Human Rights and Business, 2020

This chapter reviews the role of civil society and human rights defenders in holding corporations to account. Civil society plays numerous roles in corporate accountability. It is civil society that is often first to take heed of a situation, first on the ground, and first to expose the issue to the wider public. The mobilization of civil society therefore often foreshadows shifts in both legal and business practices. Civil society uses a wide variety of tactics, from engagement in multistakeholder regulation and intracorporate consultancy and collaboration, through to exposing wrongdoing and organizing protests. The chapter takes a broad understanding of the definition of civil society, allowing it to introduce a range of actors including, inter alia, benchmarking organizations, labour movements, public interest law groups and shareholder activists. Human rights defenders are viewed more narrowly to focus on those at the dangerous frontlines of human rights protection. Case studies of Pavel Sulyandziga in Russia and Berta Cáceres in Honduras are used to demonstrate the evident risks from both state and private sector actors. The chapter also discusses some of the tactics business uses to weaken civil society participation, and concludes with a discussion of the rationales and possibilities for more positive engagement by businesses in protecting the protectors of human rights.

Improving Paths to Business Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: A Legal Guide

2018

As part of its project on human rights accountability in the global supply chain the University of Essex Business and Human Rights Project has published a legal guide on business accountability for human rights abuses in supply chains. The purpose of the guide is to identify paths to accountability for human rights abuses in global supply chains by looking beyond the ‘arm’s length transaction’ between certain contractual parties in a special relationship. It aims to provide advocates with an informative and interpretive tool supporting them to push the boundaries of civil liability, for human rights abuses in global supply chains, grounded in existing legal principles. The underlying rationale behind this exercise is an attempt to overcome the disconnect between the law and the economic and social realities prevailing in global production networks.