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A Human Rights Approach to Developing Voluntary Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations

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  • Campbell, Tom

Abstract

The criticism that voluntary codes of conduct are ineffective can be met by giving greater centrality to human rights in such codes. Provided the human rights obligations of multinational corporations are interpreted as moral obligations specifically tailored to the situation of multinational corporations, this could serve to bring powerful moral force to bear on MNCs and could provide a legitimating basis for NGO monitoring and persuasion. Approached in this way the human rights obligations of MNCs can be taken to include support for political as well as economic rights. This will go some way towards filling the regulatory gap created by the difficulty of controlling the activities of corporations operating globally. However, such a proposal will require a measure of ‘meta-regulation’ whereby the operations of MNCs are legally required to be sufficiently transparent to create the conditions for effective external moral scrutiny

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  • Campbell, Tom, 2006. "A Human Rights Approach to Developing Voluntary Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 255-269, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:16:y:2006:i:02:p:255-269_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Murphy & Jordi Vives, 2013. "Perceptions of Justice and the Human Rights Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 781-797, September.
    2. Petya Puncheva-Michelotti & Marco Michelotti & Peter Gahan, 2010. "The Relationship Between Individuals’ Recognition of Human Rights and Responses to Socially Responsible Companies: Evidence from Russia and Bulgaria," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 583-605, June.
    3. Davide Fiaschi & Elisa Giuliani, 2011. "The impact of business on society: exploring CRS adoption and alleged human rights abuses by large corporations," LEM Papers Series 2011/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Salla Laasonen & Martin Fougère & Arno Kourula, 2012. "Dominant Articulations in Academic Business and Society Discourse on NGO–Business Relations: A Critical Assessment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 521-545, September.
    5. Ana Čertanec, 2019. "The Connection between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Respect for Human Rights," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 2, pages 103-127, June.
    6. Dina M. Abdelzaher & Amr Kotb & Akrum Helfaya, 2019. "Eco-Islam: Beyond the Principles of Why and What, and Into the Principles of How," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 623-643, March.
    7. Thomas Clarke & Martijn Boersma, 2017. "The Governance of Global Value Chains: Unresolved Human Rights, Environmental and Ethical Dilemmas in the Apple Supply Chain," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 111-131, June.
    8. Mohammad Jasim Uddin & Farhad Hossain & Yuka Fujimoto & Jashim Uddin Ahmed, 2020. "Do public sector organizations ensure labor ethics? Perspectives from ethics and workplace spirituality in Bangladesh's garment sector," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(3), pages 168-178, August.
    9. Domènec Melé, 2009. "Integrating Personalism into Virtue-Based Business Ethics: The Personalist and the Common Good Principles," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 227-244, August.
    10. Vallaster, Christine & Lindgreen, Adam, 2013. "The role of social interactions in building internal corporate brands: Implications for sustainability," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 297-310.
    11. Judith Schrempf-Stirling & Florian Wettstein, 2017. "Beyond Guilty Verdicts: Human Rights Litigation and its Impact on Corporations’ Human Rights Policies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 545-562, October.
    12. Carole Jurkiewicz, 2012. "Developing a Multicultural Organizational Code of Ethics Rooted in the Moral Obligations of Citizenry," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 243-249, September.
    13. Akrum Helfaya & Amr Kotb & Rasha Hanafi, 2018. "Qur’anic Ethics for Environmental Responsibility: Implications for Business Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1105-1128, July.
    14. Arnold, Denis G. & Valentin, Andres, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility at the base of the pyramid," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1904-1914.
    15. Marcin Kilanowski, 2019. "Human rights should be our business," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(4), pages 459-473, December.
    16. Andreas Hoepner & Thereza Aguiar & Ravi Majithia, 2014. "The Level of Compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes: Does it Matter to Stock Markets?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 329-348, February.
    17. Mulder, Laetitia B. & Jordan, Jennifer & Rink, Floor, 2015. "The effect of specific and general rules on ethical decisions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 115-129.
    18. Edmund Byrne, 2014. "In Lieu of a Sovereignty Shield, Multinational Corporations Should Be Responsible for the Harm They Cause," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 609-621, November.
    19. Wettstein, Florian & Giuliani, Elisa & Santangelo, Grazia D. & Stahl, Günter K., 2019. "International business and human rights: A research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 54-65.

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