Sustainable Development in Emerging Markets & CSR Codes of Conduct: Oil and Gas Industry in Brazil

Abstract

This paper intends to provide a comparative analysis of corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSR Codes) of the oil and gas industry operating in Brazil with the provisions embodied in the international legal framework system, such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization. For comparative purposes, and given the usual structure that CSR Codes tend to follow, the analysis has been developed around the three most emphasized issues - namely, labor and human rights, environment and socio-economic issues - which in turn have been divided into common subcategories of CSR Codes. One can argue that if CSR Codes are actually based on the new international sustainable development law, which may be used to verify CSR Codes' compliance and enforcement, CSR Codes can be seen as a «global commons» understanding framework to improve sustainable development operations in emerging markets such as Brazil.