Abstract
AbstractThis contribution discusses business attitudes to human rights obligations and how the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) have affected them. These are best understood historically through a number of periods. The first, between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s, coincides with intergovernmental organization-based codifications relevant to corporate social responsibility. Business representatives were highly defensive towards extensive international legal obligations not only in relation to human rights but to corporate social responsibility (CSR) more generally. This was followed by a period of ‘voluntarism’. By the 1990s, businesses had accepted that there could be a link between their operations and human rights violations but continued to reject binding legal duties. Instead, businesses opted for voluntary codes of conduct based on individual corporate, or sectoral, initiatives. It was out of this period that the UN Global Compact emerged. ‘Voluntarism’ continues into the third period, the era of the UNGPs. The UNGPs can be characterized by ‘institutionalized voluntarism’ achieved through the framework for business and human rights represented by the UNGPs. Each period will be examined followed by a concluding section that considers business attitudes to an emerging fourth period that introduces legal obligations through mandatory due diligence laws.
Highlights
The tenth anniversary of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) demands a stocktaking
The revolution in global economic policy towards what we call ‘neoliberalism’ was under way, especially in the UK and US, whose governments were instrumental in ending the Code negotiations in 1992.13 In addition, revival of a UN Code on transnational corporations (TNCs) was restricted by institutional reorganization which saw the New York-based bodies responsible for the Code negotiations, the UN Centre and Commission on Transnational Corporations, being wound up and replaced by a new body established under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva: the Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise (DITE)
This historical overview shows that business attitudes to human rights obligations have changed markedly since the first mention of corporate human rights obligations in the UN Draft Code
Summary
The tenth anniversary of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) demands a stocktaking. A period of ‘business defensiveness’, business representatives were, on the whole, hesitant towards extensive international obligations in relation to human rights but to legal expressions of CSR more generally This early era was followed by a period of ‘voluntarism’. ‘Voluntarism’ continues into the third period of this study, the era of the UNGPs. The UNGPs can be said to be characterized by ‘institutionalized voluntarism’ achieved through the framework for business and human rights represented by the UNGPs. Each period will be examined followed by a concluding section that considers business attitudes to an emerging fourth period that introduces mandatory legal obligations
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