12 - Business and human rights

Summary

Governance beyond the state is characterized by remarkable individual and collective involvement of business corporations in norm production. In fact, “the blurring of boundaries and responsibilities for tackling social and economic issues” (Stoker 1998: 18) is one of the decisive features of governance in the post-national constellation. By engaging in norm-setting and norm implementation in the context of public–private or private–private governance arrangements, corporations are undergoing a role shift from norm violators to actors who commit themselves to human rights norms and even serve as agents of human rights promotion. This is particularly important in the light of the growing demands that these corporations face to take on new responsibilities when states lack capacity or willingness to provide public goods (see Chapter 4, this volume).

The turn of the international community to partner with the business sector in global governance can be framed as a second wave of human rights socialization targeting companies, but with an attempt to further the human rights situation in countries in which human rights still have a precarious status (Chandler 2003). With the accelerated speed of economic globalization in the 1990s in the wake of privatization and liberalization of markets, the business sector has greatly increased its influence in many regions while the governance capacities of governments stagnated or even decreased.