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Business Ethics and Human Rights: An Overview

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  • BRENKERT, George G

Abstract

In the last several decades a diverse movement has emerged that seeks to extend the accountability for human rights beyond governments and states, to businesses. Though the view that business has human rights responsibilities has attracted a great deal of positive attention, this view continues to face many reservations and unresolved questions. Business ethicists have responded in a twofold manner. First, they have tried to formulate the general terms or frameworks within which the discussion might best proceed. Second, they have sought to answer several questions that these different frameworks pose: A. What are human rights and how justify one’s defence of them?; B. Who is responsible for human rights? What justifies their extension to business?; and C. What are the general features of business’s human rights responsibilities? Are they mandatory or voluntary? How are the specific human rights responsibilities of business to be determined? Within the limited space of this article, this article seeks to critically examine where the discussion of these issues presently stands and what has been the contribution of business ethicists.

Suggested Citation

  • BRENKERT, George G, 2016. "Business Ethics and Human Rights: An Overview," Business and Human Rights Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 277-306, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buhurj:v:1:y:2016:i:02:p:277-306_00
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Obara, Louise J. & Peattie, Ken, 2018. "Bridging the great divide? Making sense of the human rights-CSR relationship in UK multinational companies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 781-793.
    2. Eundeok Kim & Terry Coonan, 2023. "Advancing Sustainability Education through a Cross-Disciplinary Online Course: Sustainability and Human Rights in the Business World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Marisa McVey & John Ferguson & François-Régis Puyou, 2023. "“Traduttore, Traditore?” Translating Human Rights into the Corporate Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 573-596, January.
    4. Prabhir Vishnu Poruthiyil, 2021. "Big Business and Fascism: A Dangerous Collusion," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 121-135, January.
    5. Lopatta, Kerstin & Tideman, Sebastian A. & Scheil, Carolin & Makarem, Naser, 2023. "The current state of corporate human rights disclosure of the global top 500 business enterprises: Measurement and determinants," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    6. Matthew Amengual & Rita Mota & Alexander Rustler, 2023. "The ‘Court of Public Opinion:’ Public Perceptions of Business Involvement in Human Rights Violations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 49-74, June.
    7. 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.
    8. Rashmi Venkatesan, 2019. "The UN Framework on Business and Human Rights: A Workers’ Rights Critique," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 635-652, July.
    9. Tricia D. Olsen & Laura Bernal-Bermúdez, 2024. "Uncovering Economic Complicity: Explaining State-Led Human Rights Abuses in the Corporate Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 35-54, January.

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