revised-draft-guiding-principles-on-foreign-debt-and-human-rights-call-for-comments-by-3-february-2012

Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

This chapter discusses the structural elements of the Guiding Principles for human rights impact assessments of economic reform policies, proposed by the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights. It describes the evolution of structural adjustment responses to financial crises and mitigation of adverse social impact up to the recent financial crisis, explains how structural adjustment programmes usually affect human rights and argues that, for both economic and legal reasons, economic reform programmes must be inclusive while at the same time advance human rights. It also explains how using human rights impact assessments can help strengthen States’ policy responses to financial crises. The chapter concludes with some preliminary recommendations for discussion on the contents and format of the Guiding Principles and proposes the next steps towards their development.


Author(s):  
Alvise Favotto ◽  
Kelly Kollman

AbstractThe adoption of the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights by the United Nations (UNGPs) in 2011 created a new governance instrument aimed at improving the promotion of human rights by business enterprises. While reaffirming states duties to uphold human rights in law, the UNGPs called on firms to promote the realization of human rights within global markets. The UNGPs thus have sought to embed human rights more firmly within the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to use CSR practices to improve corporate human rights accountability. In this paper, we explore how this incorporation of human rights into the CSR field has affected the business practices and public commitments British firms have made to promote human rights. We analyse the CSR reports published by the 50 largest British firms over a 20-year period starting in the late 1990s and interview senior CSR managers of these firms. We find that these firms have expanded how they articulate their responsibility for human rights over time. These commitments however remain largely focused on improving management practices such as due diligence and remediation procedures. Firms are often both vague and selective about which substantive human rights they engage with in light of their concerns about their market competitiveness and broader legitimacy. These outcomes suggest that, while firms cannot completely resist the normative pressures exerted by the CSR field, they retain significant resources and agency in translating such pressure into concrete practices.


1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
Malcolm Coad

Chile's military regime in 1982 celebrated its ninth anniversary to the accompaniment of the most widespread and publicly expressed opposition since the coup of 11 September 1973. The collapse of its much-vaunted ‘economic miracle’ … most painfully demonstrated by devastated national industries, an unemployment rate of 25%, and a foreign debt estimated by some economists as the highest per capita in the world … has brought criticism from even the most ardent supporters of General Pinochet. As legal labour representatives became more vocal, leaders of the largest union federation, the National Trade Union Co-ordinating Body (CNS), were jailed, while in February the outspoken President of the Public Servants Union, Tucapel Jimenez, was found dead and mutilated by a roadside near Santiago. In the first six months of this year 837 people were charged with political offences, an increase of more than a third over the same period in 1981, while thousands more were detained on suspicion and reports of torture increased. Relations between the regime and the Church worsened, despite the latter's reining in of some of its human rights activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radha Ivory ◽  
Anna John

Allegations of extraterritorial corporate misconduct illustrate the global dimensions of Australia’s challenge to implement the United Nations (‘UN’) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (‘Guiding Principles’).In the mid-1990s, companies in the BHP Billiton group faced claims that they had polluted a river in Papua New Guinea, thereby causing damage to the customary lands and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples.Less than a decade later, the Australian Federal Police commenced a criminal investigation against an Australian-Canadian joint venture for alleged support of government violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


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