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Business and Human Rights
 Dilemmas and Solutions

Edited by Rory Sullivan, Insight Investment, UK

 With a Foreword by Mary Robinson
Executive Director, Ethical Globalisation Initiative; former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
 

November 2003 | 336pp | 234 x 156mm | Hardback |
ISBN 1 874719 70 5 | £40.00 US$75.00

 

  
 
VIEW CHAPTERS

Foreword
Mary Robinson

1. Introduction (80K PDF)
Rory Sullivan


 

 


 
THE END OF THE COLD WAR and the virtual disappearance of communism have completely altered the world economy. The supply chains of supermarkets and consumer goods industries have spread ever more widely and deeply into Asia, Africa and South America, while oil, mining and financial companies, among many others, have invested heavily in countries that were previously denied to them by political or ideological barriers.

While companies have seized the opportunities presented by globalisation, they have in many cases been completely unprepared for the risks presented by their headlong rush into these new markets. Companies have found themselves and their business partners operating in countries where corruption, injustice, internal conflict and human rights violations are rife. An increasingly alert and critical world has acted as watchdog, highlighting corporate malpractice and the links between corporations and repressive regimes.

It has increasingly been argued that companies have responsibilities for the protection and promotion of human rights. These arguments are, at least to some extent, accepted by companies. Yet, despite the increasing use of human rights language in public policy discourses, the expectations of companies remain unclear. That is, what are the ethical imperatives? What are the legal expectations? How far does responsibility extend? What can companies actually do in practice? The debate is further complicated by the range of actors (companies, governments, international institutions, local communities, non-governmental organisations [NGOs], trade unions, consumers) involved; by debates around free trade versus and fair trade; by the discussion of the specific role of governments; and by questions about the relative merits of regulation and self-regulation.

Business and Human Rights provides an analysis of the relationship between companies and human rights in the context of globalisation. The analysis is in two parts. The first maps the reasons (financial, ethical, regulatory) why human rights have become a business issue. However, simply because there are reasons why companies should be concerned about human rights, this does not say what companies should or could do. Therefore, the second part of the book looks at the practical experiences of companies in responding to specific human rights issues in the context of their own operations, in their supply chains and in specific countries. These case studies, many of which have not been previously published or analysed from the perspective of human rights, provide important insights into questions such as: How do companies organise themselves to respond to human rights challenges? What have the experiences been—positive and negative? How have companies responded to specific situations? What are the roles and responsibilities of other actors: government, trade unions, NGOs? What are the limits to responsibility?

In this outstanding collection, Rory Sullivan has drawn together leading thinkers and actors from the debate on business and human rights, to establish how far the business and human rights debate has evolved, and explore the many complex questions around roles, responsibilities and solutions that remain to be answered.
 

 

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While there has been much talk of what companies should do, there has been less analysis of what companies have done in practice. It is here that this book makes such a valuable contribution, through its analysis of the actual experiences of companies in responding to specific human rights issues in the context of their own operations, in their supply chains and in specific countries.
Mary Robinson, Executive Director, Ethical Globalisation Initiative and Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
 

Basic human rights will not be guaranteed for the world's workforce until greater leadership on accountability and transparency issues is demonstrated by the business community. This book reinforces that message, and demonstrates how responsibility for ensuring human rights is everyone's business.
Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative
 

You do not need to go much further than the international framework of human rights to find all the elements to guide responsible business practice worldwide and you do not need to read much further than this wonderful book to find all the gems of information needed to understand the scope and imperative of business and human rights.
Professor Alyson Warhust, Chair of Strategy and International Development, Warwick Business School and European Faculty Pioneer 2003
 

This book makes a timely contribution to one of the most dynamic and important elements of the globalisation debate: the question of how companies can contribute to the wider enjoyment of human rights. Anyone wishing to understand—and contribute to—this debate will benefit from reading it.
Aron Cramer, Vice-President, Business and Human Rights/Global Activities, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
 

We thought human rights were only the territory for government action. But consumers and investors now also judge how companies deal with sweatshops, zones of conflicts or HIV/AIDS around their global operations. This book hands business a better map for the management of human rights issues
Claude Fussler, Director, WBCSD and Special Advisor to the UN Global Compact
 

This book creates a compelling argument for corporate action on human rights. The case studies explode the myth that, as companies can never meet the expectations of NGOs and civil society, they are better off doing nothing. Irrefutable evidence is provided that companies across sectors can and are taking steps to mitigate their negative human rights impacts.
Peter Frankental, Business Group Manager, Amnesty International UK
 



 

Contents


Foreword (37K)
Mary Robinson
Executive Director, Ethical Globalisation Initiative; former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

1. Introduction
Rory Sullivan, Insight Investment, UK
 

2. The evolution of the business and human rights debate
Sir Geoffrey Chandler, UK
 

3. The development of human rights responsibilities for multinational enterprises
Peter Muchlinski, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
 

4. Human rights, trade and multinational corporations
David Kinley and Adam McBeth, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University, Australia
 

5. Human rights and business: an ethical analysis
Denis G. Arnold, University of Tennessee, USA
 

6. The ability of corporations to protect human rights in developing countries
Frans-Paul van der Putten, Gemma Crijns and Harry Hummels, Nyenrode University, The Netherlands
 

7. What is the attitude of investment markets to corporate performance on human rights?
David Coles, Just Pensions, UK
 

8. From the inside looking out: a management perspective on human rights
Rory Sullivan, Insight Investment, UK, and Nina Seppala, Warwick Business School, UK
 

9. Corporate social responsibility failures in the oil industry
Charles Woolfson, University of Glasgow, UK, and Matthias Beck, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
 

10. Mining in conflict zones
Simon Handelsman, Global Issues Advisors, USA
 

11. Health, business and human rights: the responsibility of health professionals within the corporation
Norbert Goldfield, 3M Health Information Systems, USA
 

12. Privatising infrastructure development: ‘development refugees’ and the resettlement challenge
Christopher McDowell, Macquarie University, Australia
 

13. The contribution of multinationals to the fight against HIV/AIDS
Steven Lim and Michael Cameron, University of Waikato, New Zealand
 

14. Elimination of child labour: business and local communities
Bahar Ali Kazmi and Magnus Macfarlane, Warwick Business School, UK
 

15. SA8000: human rights in the workplace
Deborah Leipziger, consultant, The Netherlands, and Eileen Kaufman, Social Accountability International, USA
 

16. Corporate responsibility and social capital: the nexus dilemma in Mexican maquiladoras
Luis Reygadas, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, Mexico
 

17. From fuelling conflict to oiling the peace: harnessing the peace-building potential of extractive sector companies operating in conflict zones
Jessica Banfield, International Alert, UK
 

18. Extracting conflict
Gary MacDonald, Monkey Forest Consulting Ltd, Canada, and Timothy McLaughlin, independent consultant, USA
 

19. Managing risk and building trust: the challenge of implementing the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights
Bennett Freeman, Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and Genoveva Hernández Uriz, European University Institute, Italy
 

20. Taking responsibility for bribery: the multinational corporation’s role in combating corruption
David Hess, University of Michigan Business School, USA, and Thomas Dunfee, University of Pennsylvania, USA
 

21. Taking the business and human rights agenda to the limit? The Body Shop and Amnesty International ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign
Heike Fabig, University of Sussex, UK, and Richard Boele, Australian Institute of Corporate Citizenship
 

22. Moving forwards
 Rory Sullivan, Insight Investment, UK
 


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About the editor

Dr Rory Sullivan has been Director, Investor Responsibility with Insight Investment since October 2002. He is a member of the Amnesty International (UK) Business Group and, from 1998 to 2001, was the Convenor of the Amnesty International (Australia) Business Group. In these roles, he led much of Amnesty International’s work relating to trade and investment policy, and corporate accountability.

Rory has worked in Australia, South-East Asia, Africa and Europe on projects relating to issues such as development strategy, community-right-to-know programmes, corporate environmental management and reporting, and auditing social and environmental performance. Most recently, he worked with the Natural Resources Cluster of the World Bank’s Business Partners for Development programme, where he was responsible for the evaluation of tri-sector partnerships for development (health, education, water) between governments, extractive companies and civil-society organisations. He was previously an adviser to Environment Australia and to the OECD on the development and implementation of pollution release and transfer registers.

He is the author (with Hugh Wyndham) of Effective Environmental Management: Principles and Case Studies (Allen & Unwin, 2001) and the editor (with Michael Warner) of Putting Partnering to Work (Greenleaf Publishing, 2003). He has written over one hundred articles, book chapters and papers on human rights, environmental policy and development issues.

 


 

 
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