Roadmap Announced for Human Rights Global Governance of Transnational Businesses
ECONOMICS, CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP, HUMAN RIGHTS
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
For the past six years, the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) has been encouraging transnational businesses to voluntarily implement human rights standards. Though the formal mandate of the organization concluded on March 31, 2009, BLIHR plans to continue its work through four “key initiatives” that are designed to institutionalize the human rights global governance of businesses.
In 2003, in order to “find practical ways of applying the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise,” a few leaders from the human rights global governance movement and several transnational corporations launched BLIHR. Initially, BLIHR developed a “tool box” consisting of several guides for businesses on human rights. In addition, BLIHR promoted the human rights global governance of businesses by submitting reports to the UN Special Representative on business and human rights and by organizing international events, including the December 2008 International Seminar on Business and Human Rights held in Paris, France. Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, chaired BLIHR.
So that its work continues, BLIHR has created “legacy projects” around four thematic areas.
First, BLIHR is developing a business and human rights strategy featuring a “Human Rights Matrix and Essential Steps” (the “Matrix”). This human rights impact assessment tool is to be used by companies to ensure that current and future business practices meet human rights standards recommended in the framework established by the UN Special Representative on business and human rights. At the core of the Matrix are “Essential Steps,” consisting of what BLIHR has determined to be those minimum human rights standards that every corporation should follow “regardless of its size, location or the nature of its business.”
The second thematic area consists of a guide that corporations can use to integrate human rights into their management systems. The “Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Practice” (the “Guide”) provides an online tool offering guidance on how the issue of business and human rights is applicable to all companies; how to develop human rights strategies; how to incorporate those strategies into company policy; how to develop “control mechanisms” to ensure that policies are respecting human rights; how to foster the “capacity and capability” of businesses to “identify and respond effectively to human rights risks and opportunities;” and how to construct effective performance tracking indicators. The Guide was developed in cooperation with the UN Global Compact and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, the website of which is to be launched in the near future, will manage the promotion of the Guide and the above-referenced Matrix.
BLIHR’s third thematic area considers the human rights global governance of transnational corporations conducting business in developing countries. The Kennedy School at Harvard University and the Institute for Human Rights and Business will be responsible for implementing this effort. The problems inherent in the human rights global governance of transnational businesses with activities in developing countries were explained in two GGW “On the Issues” posts dated June 9 and June 17.
The final BLIHR legacy project will promote the previously published BLIHR “Human Rights Corporate Accountability Guide,” the purpose of which is to educate corporate leaders about the importance of linking human rights, corporate governance, and business ethics.
By establishing the four legacy projects and transferring to successor organizations responsibility for their implementation, BLIHR has taken steps to advance the human rights global governance of transnational businesses for years to come. It has done so in a manner that strategically identifies the core elements of such governance and those organizations best suited to pursue each element. As a result, transnational businesses will face heightened expectations regarding their compliance with ambiguous and costly human rights standards, especially in the area of economic rights.
Jim Kelly is the President of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public interest civil and human rights law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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