Accepting a conceptual challenge

The debate on “business and human rights” has become a central theme on the international corporate responsibility agenda. Two processes in particular have contributed to this: the discourse on the practical consequences of the two UN Global Compact principles that are specific to human rights and the work of a sub-commission of the Human Rights Commission under the chairmanship of American law professor David Weissbrodt. The result of this work, a set of “Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises,” was considered to contain “useful elements and ideas” but was not accepted by the Human Rights Commission as a document with legal standing. One factor that evoked concern and disapproval for some observers was a generally negative undertone regarding the impact of corporate activities on human rights as well as impractical monitoring and verification mechanisms “already in existence or to be created”.

To overcome the deadlock that evolved from incompatible positions of different stakeholders vis à vis the draft norms, on April 20, 2005, the UN Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution on “Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Businesses,” which requested the secretary-general to appoint a “Special Representative on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Businesses.