Topic
Historically, human rights protection is primarily accounted by states, and are translated in many
international and national treaties and conventions, guidelines and best
practices. However, governments often lack resources or willingness to ensure
that human rights are adequately respected, especially when the issues at hand
go beyond their national territory. This is even more true in conflict zones
and under repressive regimes. The United Nations (UN) and other international
organizations are helping willing states to implement measures with regard to
human rights issues. However, binding regulations are not attained easily.
Civil society awareness has risen in reaction to the growing number of publicized human rights’ scandals. The role
of NGOs in such issues has therefore boomed since the issuing of the UDHR, in
December 1948. NGOs are able to put pressure on governments that are not willing
to apply and ensure that human rights are not violated under their
jurisdiction. They might also provide helpful insights to states that want to
bring a change to such a situation. In the last decade, NGOs criticisms have also
touched the private sector. An increasing number of multinational corporations
are confronted with human rights challenges along their supply chains, covering
a broad range of issues, from slave and child labor, corruption, suppression of
unions to collaboration with repressive regimes.
The global "privatization of
human rights violations" is rarely driven by the intention to do harm. It
can be assumed that corporate harmdoing builds upon a lack of moral
imagination, expertise and geopolitical knowledge as well as the conviction
that human rights are a governmental, not a business responsibility. Media, and
therefore public attention, focuses on such issues, as they are strongly
emotional. Disclosed cases of corporate complicity or direct perpetration do
often provoke strong civil society reactions that are linked to financial and
reputational risks. However, since international law targets nation states rather
than private actors, most of these challenges unfold in a global regulatory
vacuum. Multistakeholder initiatives attempt to fill that vacuum by
institutionalizing "governance with and without government"
mechanisms of self-regulation. Since sustainable profits depend on the
stability of the societal context of business operations, corporations should
have an interest in first respecting and then promoting human rights across
their activities.
The Swiss Master Class in CSR
2008 focuses on the human rights challenge of global business operations. The
conference will establish a dialogue on human rights issues between the
academic world and corporate practice, by bringing together young researchers, renowned
experts on human rights - from universities, governments, transnational
institutions and civil society – and high-level corporate managers. The goal
will be to assess human rights in the world today, and discuss possible ways
for businesses, states, NGOs and international organizations to understand the
issues at stake and to elaborate guidelines and principles that will help to
promote human rights in the world.
