From principles to practice – Human rights demands on corporate impact assessment processes

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the effect of human rights demands on business activities, in particular corporate impact assessment processes. Over the last two decades the discussion of companies’ responsibilities to protect human rights has significantly gained attention. Being the first globally accepted standards, the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework and the subsequent UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights developed by John Ruggie, represent milestone achievements within this discussion. Focusing on the second pillar of the framework, namely the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, the implications for corporations derived from the Guiding Principles will be presented. A widely adopted tool for identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action is impact assessment. While there are various different areas of application, the Guiding Principles suggest for companies to implement human rights impact assessments as part of their human rights due diligence process. After covering the theoretical background as well as existing research findings, a proposed procedure for human rights impact assessments will be presented. The findings show that the integration of a human rights perspective in business is necessary and overdue but may also imply challenges such as an increased expenditure on resources as well as competitive disadvantages. While the Guiding Principles have led to significant progress in the human rights debate they are far from being obligatory and the implementation of human rights concerns into business activities may thus create an uneven playing field for stakeholders involved.