Human rights and business: Expectations, requirements, and procedures for the responsible modern company

Introduction Conventionally, lawyers consider human rights to be rights held by individuals with corresponding duties to be held by States. That perception accords with the international human rights regime that has evolved since the late nineteenth century and with the conventional state-centrist structure of post-Westphalian international law. However, recent decades have witnessed a surge in social expectations and policy debates that argue or even assume that businesses have responsibility for their human rights impact. This has translated into a series of regulatory instruments, ranging from private codes of conduct and contractual obligations to policy, incentive-based regulation, international soft law, and increasingly statutory requirements for firms to report on their human rights policies or impact. Over the past decades, business enterprises have gained increased influence and power. In particular, multinational enterprises have grown not just in numbers and size, but also in political and economic power. In line with the view that with power comes responsibility, this development has led to expectations that firms assume responsibilities beyond the conventional economic aspects of trade and production. Such expectations have challenged the conventional division of political tasks and legal obligations between the private and public sector. Much of this blurring of boundaries between public and private and even between national and international influence and regulation is a side effect of globalization - not only of trade and the world economy, but also of information flows leading to enhanced knowledge among consumers of the conditions under which goods have been made. Simultaneously there has been increased privatization of many sectors and services from the provision of water to health services. Many of these issues and processes entail human rights aspects, ranging from working conditions, child labor, and forced labor to the impact of mining and large-scale agricultural projects on the access to food, land, work, shelter, and health of local communities and from the impact of industry and toxic emissions on access to water to short-term government requirements for private local health services in exchange for corporate concessions. Media and civil society have shared these human rights implications leading to pressure from consumers, investors, and companies interested in acquiring other business entities. Much of this pressure reflects social expectations that business enterprises respect human rights.