Abstract
It is a daunting task to discern between the several debates within and surrounding the corporate social responsibility and the business and human rights movements. At the basic level of objectives, for instance, questions arise as to which movement is substantively or comparatively broader in scope. In contributing to the debates, this article investigates their evolution and the intersections within the fields. It finds both movements to be inextricably-linked regulatory movements directed at establishing accountability for the impact of human rights violations. Using the human rights due diligence requirement elaborated by the influential United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a springboard, the article integrates the shared objective of the two inseparable movements, describing for scholarship and practice, the ambit of a victim-centred accountability remedial framework for business-related human rights abuses.
Highlights
This article clarifies the issue of whether the Corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement goes beyond voluntary corporate charity and demonstrates it to be a regulatory movement that is used instrumentally as a countervailing power by the state to prevent the adverse human rights impacts of businesses and has been adopted as self-regulatorily by the business community to manage risks associated with balancing their legal, ethical and socio-economic responsibilities
Adopting a view that transcends the notion that it is the duty of the state to fulfil human rights, the article explains that the business and human rights movement entails a focus on corporate responsibility for any adverse social, economic and environmental impacts on victim corporate stakeholders of human rights abuses
It showed the movements to be inextricably linked and established their shared objective in establishing accountability for impacts and seeking effective remedies for business-related human rights violations. Both movements are directed at creating corporate liability for the adverse social, economic and environmental impacts of corporate operations in the public interest
Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not easy to define; it even is suggested that it is impossible to give a generally-acceptable definition.[1]. The late entrance of business and human rights appears to be informed by the dominant assumption in the early part of the last century that the major responsibility for protecting and advancing respect for human rights lay with government. This view limited corporations to having indirect legal responsibility for human rights abuses.[14]. The business and human rights movement is relatively recent and is about reinterpreting and redesigning the international human rights regime in a way that includes and addresses the role of non-state actors and corporations as direct duty bearers.[16]. Beyond the further exploration and integration of the shared objectives of the movements, the article targets delimitating
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