Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

J Bus Ethics (2013) 116:799814 DOI 10.1007/s10551-013-1822-z

Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Bjrn Fasterling Geert Demuijnck

Received: 22 July 2012 / Accepted: 1 July 2013 / Published online: 6 August 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Principles) that provide guidance for the implementation of the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy framework (Framework) will probably succeed in making human rights matters more customary in corporate management procedures. They are likely to contribute to higher levels of accountability and awareness within corporations in respect of the negative impact of business activities on human rights. However, we identify tensions between the idea that the respect of human rights is a perfect moral duty for corporations and the Principles human rights due diligence requirement. We argue that the effectiveness of the human rights due diligence is in many respects dependent upon the moral commitment of corporations. The Principles leave room for an instrumental or strategic implementation of due diligence, which in some cases could result in a depreciation of the fundamental norms they seek to promote. We reveal some limits of pragmatic approaches to coping with business-related human rights abuses. As these limits become more apparent, not only does the case for further progress in international and extraterritorial human rights law become more compelling, but so too does the argument for a more forceful discussion on the moral foundations of human rights duties for corporations.

Keywords Human rights Ruggie Principles

Corporate responsibility Moral rights Moral duties

Introduction

In this article we argue that there is an unresolved tension in the way the UN Guiding Principles (UNHRC 2011a, Principles) on Business and Human Rights are formulated. On the one hand, the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises are dened in terms of due diligence but, on the other hand, this very due diligence approach falls short of the requirements implied by the respect of human rights as a perfect moral duty, i.e. a duty admitting no exception in favour of inclinations to refrain from acting on it. To the extent that the effectiveness (effectiveness is here understood as prevention and mitigation of business-related human rights abuses) of due...