Lecture 8 - Corporate Responsibilities

International Labour Law & Globalization
Lecture 8 - International Labour Standards and Responsibilities of Corporate Actors

Scene 1: Public instruments I: The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN
Global Compact

Human Rights, Fundamental Labour Standards and Corporate Actors?
 Typically states, not corporations

Terminology?
 CSR (corporate social responsibility)
 IRBC (international responsible business conduct  OECD
 Business and Human Rights  U.N.
 Corporate Sustainability  private sector
 ESG (environmental, social, and government issues)  private sector

Voluntary Public Instruments
 Developed by ILO, UN, and OECD
 OECD Guidelines 1976
 ILO MNE Declaration 1977
 The UN Global Compact 2000
 The UN Guiding Principles 2011
 The Sustainable Development
 Goals 2015

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights 2011
 This adoption was a breakthrough
 Very practical guidelines on what corporations should do to address negative human rights
impacts
- Based on the 2008: Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework
- 2011: Guiding Principles for Implementation of this Framework
- UNGPs: all human rights (including fundamental labour standards)

 This system has also been incorporated in other guidelines from ILO and OECD

3 pillar structure
 Exists of 31 principles, which are divided into:
1. Foundational principles
2. Operational principles
And each are followed by a short commentary that
contains further guidance on their application

OECD Guidelines and ILO MNE DEC updated to include HR
Chapter (2011/2017)

, How should countries use the UNGPs to respect fundamental labour standards?

Pillar II: Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights
Foundational Principle 12:
 Respect inter alia the 1998 Declaration
o No child labour or forced labour takes place in relation to your business activities

Operational Principles
 16: Explicit policy commitment
o Public
 17: HR and Due diligence process (parameters/scope)
o Measure impact of your activities
 18/19: Impact assessments (components)
(+ commentary on how to do this)

Goal is to avoid causing or contributing to negative Human Rights impact  if there are problems
you will have to prevent or mitigate them to the best of your abilities

Goal DD:
Avoid
(1) causing adverse HR impact
OR
(2) contributing to adverse HR impact
AND
(3) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse HR impact directly linked to their operations

Very important document because its practical, widely supported, and reasonably easy to
understand. Also, it doesn’t impose the same responsibilities on companies as it does on states, but
does make it clear that companies have certain responsibilities.

The UN Global Compact 2000
- initiative by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan

Mission:
- “the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative”  developed as a leadership platform
for development, implementation and disclosure of sustainable business practices
- Closely aligned to sustainable development goals (to be discussed later)
- Do business responsibly by aligning strategies and operations with ten principles on human
rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption;
- Take strategic actions to advance broader societal goals, such as the UN Sustainable
Development Goals, with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation.

Ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption derived
from:
 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 The International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work
 The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
 The United Nations Convention Against Corruption

Labour standards 3-6  echo quite literally the fundamental labour standards