IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/harjfk/rwp07-029.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda

Author

Listed:
  • Ruggie, John Gerard

    (Harvard U)

Abstract

The state-based system of global governance has struggled for more than a generation to adjust to the expanding reach and growing influence of transnational corporations, the most visible embodiment of globalization. This paper reviews two recent chapters in this endeavor, focused specifically on human rights: the “Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights,” adopted by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights but not by its parent body, the UN Human Rights Commission (since replaced by the Human Rights Council); and the author’s subsequent UN mandate as Special Representative of the Secretary-General “on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.” The paper analyzes key conceptual flaws of the draft Norms, noting the pitfalls of imposing on corporations, directly under international law, the same range of human rights duties that states have; it presents an empirical mapping of current international standards and practices regarding business and human rights, ranging from the most deeply rooted international legal obligations to voluntary initiatives; and it proposes a strategy for building on existing momentum in order to reduce human rights protection gaps in relation to corporate activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruggie, John Gerard, 2007. "Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda," Working Paper Series rwp07-029, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp07-029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=4875&type=WPN
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Björn Fasterling & Geert Demuijnck, 2013. "Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 799-814, September.
    2. Mark B. Taylor, 2021. "Counter Corporate Litigation: Remedy, Regulation, and Repression in the Struggle for a Just Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-24, September.
    3. Rekha Rao-Nicholson & Htwe Htwe Thein & Yifan Zhong, 2024. "A thematic analysis of the links between multinational enterprises’ corporate social responsibility and the Sustainable Development Goals in Myanmar," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(2), pages 203-223, June.
    4. John Gerard Ruggie, 2018. "Multinationals as global institution: Power, authority and relative autonomy," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(3), pages 317-333, September.
    5. Elwira Gross-Gołacka, 2018. "Respecting Human Rights From Perspective Of Managing Diversity in Organization – Good Practices," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 7(1), pages 38-48, February.
    6. Risse, Mathias, 2014. "Thinking about Justice," Working Paper Series rwp14-010, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    7. Kenneth Amaeshi & Emmanuel Adegbite & Tazeeb Rajwani, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Challenging and Non-enabling Institutional Contexts: Do Institutional Voids matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 135-153, March.
    8. Baxewanos, Fabiane & Raza, Werner, 2013. "Human rights impact assessments as a new tool for development policy?," Working Papers 37, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    9. Björn Fasterling, 2012. "Development of Norms Through Compliance Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 73-87, March.
    10. Luis Bustos, 2015. "The role of csr policies focused on local content actions in host countries faced with governance gaps and mining operations," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 765, htpr_v3_i.
    11. Eduardo Ortas & Igor Álvarez & Ainhoa Garayar, 2015. "The Environmental, Social, Governance, and Financial Performance Effects on Companies that Adopt the United Nations Global Compact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Karin Buhmann, 2016. "Public Regulators and CSR: The ‘Social Licence to Operate’ in Recent United Nations Instruments on Business and Human Rights and the Juridification of CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 699-714, July.
    13. Daniel Berliner & Aseem Prakash, 2012. "From norms to programs: The United Nations Global Compact and global governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 149-166, June.
    14. 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.
    15. Sandra Waddock, 2010. "From Individual to Institution: On Making the World Different," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 9-12, July.
    16. 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.
    17. Onyeka K. Osuji & Ugochukwu L. Obibuaku, 2016. "Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility: Competing or Complementary Approaches to Poverty Reduction and Socioeconomic Rights?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 329-347, June.
    18. Sébastien Mena & Marieke Leede & Dorothée Baumann & Nicky Black & Sara Lindeman & Lindsay McShane, 2010. "Advancing the Business and Human Rights Agenda: Dialogue, Empowerment, and Constructive Engagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 161-188, April.
    19. Daniel Berliner & Aseem Prakash, 2014. "The United Nations Global Compact: An Institutionalist Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 217-223, June.
    20. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2018. "Multinational enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals: An institutional approach to corporate engagement," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(3), pages 208-233, December.
    21. Marcin Kilanowski, 2019. "Human rights should be our business," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(4), pages 459-473, December.
    22. Robert E. Goodin, 2008. "Global Democracy: In the Beginning," Discussion Papers 30, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    23. Jonathan Morris & Jean Jenkins & Jimmy Donaghey, 2021. "Uneven Development, Uneven Response: The Relentless Search for Meaningful Regulation of GVCs," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 3-24, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp07-029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ksharus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.