Corporate Human Rights Responsibilities

This article begins with a discussion of why one should be concerned or at least interested in the human rights conduct of corporations. Hence, the first part of the article presents a couple of historical and current situations which require attention and standard-setting. The second part focuses on past efforts of international law and particularly international human rights law to deal with such non-state actors as corporations. The third part discusses five major attributes of the U.N. Human Rights Norms which built upon the previous efforts to deal with the human rights conduct of corporations. The fourth part traces the process by which the Norms were prepared and are now being considered by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The fifth part identifies three principal issues raised by the opponents to the Norms. And the article concludes with an account of how the Norms are already being used by businesses, mutual funds, and others