Transnational Corporations and the Duty to Respect Basic Human Rights

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis G. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Legal Duty ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACT:In a series of reports the United Nations Special Representative on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations has emphasized a tripartite framework regarding business and human rights that includes the state “duty to protect,” the TNC “responsibility to respect,” and “appropriate remedies” for human rights violations. This article examines the recent history of UN initiatives regarding business and human rights and places the tripartite framework in historical context. Three approaches to human rights are distinguished: moral, political, and legal. It is argued that the tripartite framework’s grounding of the responsibility of TNCs to respect human rights is properly understood as moral and not merely as a political or legal duty. A moral account of the duty of TNCs to respect basic human rights is defended and contrasted with a merely strategic approach. The main conclusion of the article is that only a moral account of the basic human rights duties of TNCs provides a sufficiently deep justification of “the corporate responsibility to respect human rights” feature of the tripartite framework.

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.

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.

Exploring care home providers’ public commitments to human rights in light of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 357-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The United Nations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore care home providers’ public communications covering their commitments to respecting residents’ the human rights. The discussion considers the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and a domestic legal and regulatory human rights framework. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative content analysis undertaken in 2017 of 70 websites of England’s largest commercial care home providers. Findings There are strong value-based public commitments in the websites of many English care home providers, which may or may not be interpreted as expressing their commitments to human rights. Research limitations/implications Research was limited to websites, which are public facing and marketing tools of care home providers. This does not provide inferences regarding the practical implementation of value-based statements or human-rights-based procedures or policies. This paper does not make any value judgements regarding either the public communications of care home providers or normative claims regarding human rights and care home service provision. Practical implications There is a need for clarification and debate about the potential role and added value of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the UNGPs’ operating principles within the English residential care sector. Further exploration of the relationship between personalisation/person-centred care and human rights might be useful. Originality/value This paper introduces the UNGPs and corporate responsibility to respect human rights to the debate on human rights, personalised/person-centred care, safeguarding and care homes in England. It adds a new perspective to discussions of the human rights obligations of care home providers.

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 Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 819-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerard Ruggie
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Business And Human Rights

The state-based system of global governance has struggled for more than a generation to adjust to the expanding reach and growing influence of transnational corporations. The United Nations first attempted to establish binding international rules to govern the activities of transnationals in the 1970s. That endeavor was initiated by developing countries as part of a broader regulatory program with redistributive aims known as the New International Economic Order. Human rights did not feature in this initiative. The Soviet bloc supported it while most industrialized countries were opposed. Negotiations ground to a halt after more than a decade, though they were not formally abandoned until 1992.

Assessing the roles of multi-stakeholder initiatives in advancing the business and human rights agenda

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (887) ◽  
pp. 1027-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Jerbi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Direct Response ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
The Future ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

AbstractGrowing reliance on ‘multi-stakeholder initiatives’ (MSIs) aimed at improving business performance with respect to specific human rights-related challenges has become a significant dimension of the evolving corporate responsibility agenda over recent decades. A number of such initiatives have developed in direct response to calls for greater state and corporate accountability in areas of weak governance and violent conflict. This article examines the evolution of key MSIs in light of the 2011 adoption of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and addresses challenges facing these initiatives in the future.

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.

scholarly journals Better Together: A Complementary Approach to Civil Judicial Remedies in Business and Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleydis Nissen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Practical Solution ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Judicial Remedies

Effective civil judicial remedies are often inaccessible to victims of transnational corporations (TNCs) from economically developed states that operate in developing or emerging states. The general consensus is that local capacity development is the most practical solution. The alternative solution—opening the doors of courts to victims in other states (including TNC home states)—is often said to be illusory. At the 2017 Discussion Day on Business and Human Rights, organized by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), one invited speaker went as far as stating that extraterritorial remedies would only result in victims’ disappointment. There is, however, an inconsistency in this argument. Extraterritorial remedies are still important in dealing with current issues. This article weighs the arguments and makes the case for a mixed approach consisting of both local and extraterritorial capacity development.

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