Review of the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, Professor John Ruggie to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights Ah/Hrc/8/5, 7 April 2008

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olufemi O. Amao
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
John Ruggie

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.

scholarly journals Human Rights Responsibility of Multinational Corporations, Political Ecology of Injustice: Learning from Bhopal Thirty Plus?

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Upendra BAXI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Global Compact ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Business Enterprises

AbstractThis article addresses human rights responsibilities of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the light of what I describe as the four Bhopal catastrophes. More than thirty years of struggle by the valiant violated people to seek justice is situated in the contemporary efforts of the United Nations to develop a new discursivity for human rights and business—from the Global Compact to the Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the more recent process to elaborate a legally-binding international instrument.

scholarly journals INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSAL INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IN BUSINESS SPHERE

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
Rights Issues

The article focuses on the functioning of the international universal institutional mechanism for the protection of human rights in business sphere. The importance of the statutory bodies of the United Nations, the officials who are empowered to make decisions on many issues related to a wide range of subjects of international legal relations, including the protection of human rights in business sphere, is emphasized, in particular: the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council, the Secretary-General. The role of the Human Rights Council as a body of the United Nations, which is responsible for promoting the universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, in the creation of specialized, narrow-profile human rights protection structures in business sphere has been defined. The powers of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises have been described, with an emphasis on the significance of “Protect, respect and remedy” framework proposed by him. The attention is paid to the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The importance of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights as a dialogue center for the cooperation on business and human rights issues is highlighted. The emphasis is placed on the mandate of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, which provides the development of a legally binding instrument for regulating the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises in international human rights law. It is emphasized on the tasks performed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in business and human rights issues, and its cooperation with specialized bodies in this area; its role in the promotion and implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is highlighted.

On Behalf of the United Nations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Falk
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Occupied Palestinian Territory ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Palestinian Territory

This chapter reflects on the role as special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), which investigated the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The chapter first provides an overview of the role and office of special rapporteur, noting that UN concerns about Israel and responses to Palestinian grievances are highly politicized within the organization, before discussing some of the characteristics that distinguish the mandate established by the HRC and made applicable to Occupied Palestine. It also explains what was accomplished in six years as special rapporteur of the HRC and details the controversies and pressures attached to that job. It shows that the “UN” comprises different layers, agendas, and interests. The chapter claims that while the United Nations secretary-general in New York permitted personal attacks against the special rapporteur, the leadership and professionals of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva strongly supported his efforts in what the chapter calls the “legitimacy war”.

Negotiating a Treaty on Business and Human Rights: The Early Stages

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Humberto Cantu Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
International Obligation ◽  
The United Nations

The idea of subjecting corporations to some sort of international obligation, particularly in the field of human rights, is not new; different processes and ways of doing this have been debated since the 1970s, when a proposed all-encompassing Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations was pushed through the ranks of the United Nations (‘UN’) Commission on Transnational Corporations

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 UN Norms for Transnational Corporations

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
DETLEV F. VAGTS
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Marginal Utility ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Previous Effort ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Business Enterprises

The proposed draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights addressed to transnational corporations are making their way through the human rights channels in the United Nations. A previous effort in the United Nations failed twenty years ago. The Norms would urge those firms to adhere to a long list of treaties on the environment, labour standards, human rights, and the like. They would enter into a field already occupied by numerous principles and guidelines generated by many different institutions with varying degrees of authority. The addition of these norms to that corpus seems of marginal utility.

The Necessity for a Business and Human Rights Treaty

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
David BILCHITZ
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Legal Instrument ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council

AbstractIn June 2014, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution establishing an inter-governmental working group to discuss a legally binding instrument relating to transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In this article, I outline four arguments for why such an instrument is desirable. Identifying the purpose of such a treaty is crucial in outlining a vision of what it should seek to achieve and in determining its content. The arguments indicate that a treaty is necessary to provide legal solutions to cure serious lacunae and ambiguities in the current framework of international law which have a serious negative impact upon the rights of individuals affected by corporate activities. The emphasis throughout is upon why a binding legal instrument is important, as opposed to softer forms of regulation such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The four arguments in turn provide the resources to respond to objections raised against the treaty and to reject an alternative, more restrictive proposal for a treaty that only addresses ‘gross’ human rights violations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document