Global Patterns, Regional and Sectoral Variations

Abstract

The resolution establishing the SRSG's mandate asks him to identify and clarify standards of corporate responsibility and accountability with respect to human rights. This request was not confined to legal standards that may impose direct or indirect obligations on companies, but was also meant to include the realms of social expectations and moral obligations. A key indicator of the latter consists of the human rights standards that business itself adopts, triggered by its assessment of human rights-related risks and opportunities in the social and political environments in which it operates. This report summarizes the human rights standards referenced or invoked by a cross-section of companies, collective initiatives, and socially responsible investment funds. The present study complements the SRSG's survey of the human rights policies and management practices of the Global Fortune 500 (FG500) companies. But it differs from that survey in three important respects. First, it is based on actual documentation of such policies and practices rather than on questionnaire responses. Second, it includes a broader cross-section of companies, including transnational and national companies domiciled in emerging markets and developing countries. Third, it provides information about the human rights standards of business entities other than firms. The two studies together comprise the most comprehensive analysis yet conducted on the subject of business and human rights.