Human Rights 75: Business and human rights

This comprehensive Commentary provides an in-depth analysis of each of the 31 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as the 10 Principles for Responsible Contracts. It engages in both a legal and contextual examination of the Principles alongside their application to real world practices at both the domestic and international levels. Key Features: - One of the first detailed considerations of each of the Principles for Responsible Contracts - Contributions from more than 40 leading international academics and practitioners in the field - Discussion of legal and regulatory instruments as well as case law emanating from the Principles - Offers information on interpreting, analysing, and using the UNGPs and the Principles for Responsible Contracts in a centralized accessible format. Practitioners, including government officials, who are responsible for corporate governance and human rights issues will find this Commentary invaluable for its systematic analysis of the obligations of both States and corporations. It will also be of interest to academics and those working for NGOs in the area of business and human rights, as well as businesses themselves looking to incorporate sustainability initiatives into their corporate practices.

A powerful guide to seeking justice from corporations who commit human rights and environmental atrocities. Multinational enterprises, or MNEs, can contribute to economic prosperity and social development in the countries where they operate. At the same time, their activities may directly or indirectly cause harm to humans and to the environment. Historically, MNEs have rarely been held accountable for their involvement in human rights abuses and environmental damage. In recent years, however, activists have sought to hold parent companies directly liable for the harm caused by their group's activities. They have also strategically used litigation to trigger corporate accountability reforms at international, regional, and national levels. Focusing on Europe, this book evaluates the extent to which litigation against MNEs has been effective in achieving access to justice and corporate accountability, particularly in civil-law countries. It also considers whether ongoing regulatory developments, such as the adoption of mandatory human rights due diligence norms and the negotiations for a business and human rights treaty, can contribute to the realization of access to justice and corporate accountability in the future.

This important book provides a comprehensive analysis of good-fit and home-grown approaches for advancing business and human rights norms across Africa. It explores the latest developments in law, regulations, policies, and governance structures across the continent, focusing on key legal innovations in response to human rights impacts of business operations and activities. Featuring contributions from expert scholars and practitioners, the book provides a complete survey of the multifarious regulatory and institutional gaps that limit the coherent development and application of business and human rights law and practice at national and regional levels in Africa. Chapters discuss practical barriers to effective implementation, how such barriers could be addressed through innovative approaches, and the local contexts for the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Africa. Thematic sections offer conceptual and theoretical reflections on how African countries can effectively mainstream human rights standards and considerations into all aspects of development planning and decision-making. Business and Human Rights Law and Practice in Africawill be a key resource for academics, practitioners, policy makers and students in the fields of governance, human rights, corporate law and public international law, who are interested in responsible and rights-based business practices in Africa. The guidance and rules provided for integrating human rights into project design and implementation will also be useful for corporate bodies and financial institutions.

In General Principles for Business and Human Rights in International Law Ludovica Chiussi Curzi offers an overview of the relevance of general principles of law in the multifaceted discourse on business and human rights. What are the implications of the state duty to protect human rights in good faith and to guarantee victims of corporate human rights violations access to justice? Can general principles of law, such as abuse of rights, due diligence, and estoppel provide a source of obligations for companies that is relevant to human rights protection? Has an autonomous principle on corporate liability developed in international law? These are the questions at the core of this monograph, which seeks the answers in the normative foundations of public international law.

Legal Sources in Business and Human Rights engages with some evolving trends that are currently affecting the international and EU law sources in the field of Business and Human Rights. Three main dynamics are detected and explored: the emergence of international legal obligations that are also binding on corporations (Part I); the growing participation of corporations in traditional international standard-setting and law-making processes and, in parallel, the emergence of atypical and heterogeneous law-making processes (Part II); the formal or substantive hardening of originally soft normative standards, through a multi-layered and multi-player law-making process (Part III). Interestingly, these trends concur to mitigate States' reluctance to accept binding rules in this field, and to strengthen the effectiveness of soft international regulation.

Transnational business activities are important drivers of growth for developing and the least developed countries. However, they can also negatively impact the enjoyment of human rights. In some cases, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have even been accused of grave human rights abuses in the territory of the states where their subsidiaries operate. Since the parent companies of many MNEs are incorporated under the law of European states, those countries¿ domestic law and the European legal framework play a crucial role in establishing how their activities should be conducted ¿ also throughout their supply chains ¿ and which remedies will be available when corporate human rights violations occur. In recent years, the European Union, the Council of Europe and their Member States have been adopting policies and legislation to ensure respect for human rights by businesses and have developed a body of related case law. These legal instruments can be considered the European responses to the challenges posed at international-law level, and they constitute the focus of research of this book. Through its collected chapters ¿ written by scholars and practitioners under the direction of the editor, Angelica Bonfanti ¿ the book identifies the European solutions to the business and human rights international legal issues, provides an overall assessment of their effectiveness, and examines their potential evolution.

The end of the Cold War and the virtual disappearance of communism have completely altered the world economy. The supply chains of supermarkets and consumer goods industries have spread ever more widely and deeply into Asia, Africa and South America, while oil, mining and financial companies, among many others, have invested heavily in countries that were previously denied to them by political or ideological barriers. While companies have seized the opportunities presented by globalisation, they have in many cases been completely unprepared for the risks presented by their headlong rush into these new markets. Companies have found themselves and their business partners operating in countries where corruption, injustice, internal conflict and human rights violations are rife. An increasingly alert and critical world has acted as watchdog, highlighting corporate malpractice and the links between corporations and repressive regimes. It has increasingly been argued that companies have responsibilities for the protection and promotion of human rights. These arguments are, at least to some extent, accepted by companies. Yet, despite the increasing use of human rights language in public policy discourses, the expectations of companies remain unclear. That is, what are the ethical imperatives? What are the legal expectations? How far does responsibility extend? What can companies actually do in practice? The debate is further complicated by the range of actors (companies, governments, international institutions, local communities, non-governmental organisations [NGOs], trade unions, consumers) involved; by debates around free trade versus and fair trade; by the discussion of the specific role of governments; and by questions about the relative merits of regulation and self-regulation. Business and Human Rights provides an analysis of the relationship between companies and human rights in the context of globalisation. The analysis is in two parts. The first maps the reasons (financial, ethical, regulatory) why human rights have become a business issue. However, simply because there are reasons why companies should be concerned about human rights, this does not say what companies should or could do. Therefore, the second part of the book looks at the practical experiences of companies in responding to specific human rights issues in the context of their own operations, in their supply chains and in specific countries. These case studies, many of which have not been previously published or analysed from the perspective of human rights, provide important insights into questions such as: How do companies organise themselves to respond to human rights challenges? What have the experiences been-positive and negative? How have companies responded to specific situations? What are the roles and responsibilities of other actors: government, trade unions, NGOs? What are the limits to responsibility? In this outstanding collection, Rory Sullivan has drawn together leading thinkers and actors from the debate on business and human rights, to establish how far the business and human rights debate has evolved, and explore the many complex questions around roles, responsibilities and solutions that remain to be answered.

One of the most vexing human rights issues of our time has been how to protect the rights of individuals and communities worldwide in an age of globalization and multinational business. Indeed, from Indonesian sweatshops to oil-based violence in Nigeria, the challenges of regulating harmful corporate practices in some of the world's most difficult regions long seemed insurmountable. Human rights groups and businesses were locked in a stalemate, unable to find common ground. In 2005, the United Nations appointed John Gerard Ruggie to the modest task of clarifying the main issues. Six years later, he had accomplished much more than that. Ruggie had developed his now-famous "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," which provided a road map for ensuring responsible global corporate practices. The principles were unanimously endorsed by the UN and embraced and implemented by other international bodies, businesses, governments, workers' organizations, and human rights groups, keying a revolution in corporate social responsibility. Just Business tells the powerful story of how these landmark "Ruggie Rules" came to exist. Ruggie demonstrates how, to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, he had to abandon many widespread and long-held understandings about the relationships between businesses, governments, rights, and law, and develop fresh ways of viewing the issues. He also takes us through the journey of assembling the right type of team, of witnessing the severity of the problem firsthand, and of pressing through the many obstacles such a daunting endeavor faced. Just Business is an illuminating inside look at one of the most important human rights developments of recent times. It is also an invaluable book for anyone wanting to learn how to navigate the tricky processes of global problem-solving and consensus-building and how to tackle big issues with ambition, pragmatism, perseverance, and creativity.