Aftercorporate human rights obligations were justified in general terms in the previous chapter, this chapter defines their nature and extent further. The question is approached, first, by distinguishing different obligation types in a general manner, briefly defining negative and positive obligations, passive and active obligations, general and special obligations, and perfect and imperfect obligations. The chapter then zooms in on human rights obligations in particular. It discusses in detail the tripartite duty structure correlating with human rights and how the three types of human rights obligations – the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights – may be interpreted to apply to corporations.

The last chapter of the textbook briefly reflects on the road travelled so far in BHR and the challenges that still lie ahead. Despite significant acheivements in improving corporate accountability for human rights in recent years, there is still a lot to be done to improve the situation of affected rights-holders on the ground. However, in the light of the rise of right-wing populism and the global Covid-19 pandemic, the global environment for human rights protection has become more, rather than less challienging in recent years. On a positive note, businesses can be progressive forces in promoting human rights in these challenging contexts. Recent incidents of companies engaging in human rights advocacy and activism demonstrate that a growing number of companies are willing to use their leverage to push for pro-social and human rights issues. In such situations, crisis can become an opportunity for ethical renewal.

BHR is a fast-evolving interdisciplinary field and naturally its focus expands over time and new subdiscussions start to emerge. Such new discussions often appear at the intersection between BHR and other fields. This chapter briefly outlines four selected emerging discussions within the BHR field, namely: the intersection between BHR and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the relevance of climate change for BHR, gender perspectives on BHR, and BHR in post-conflict and transitional justice contexts.

This chapter engages with the two main instruments resulting from the mandate of the UN Special Representative on BHR (SRSG) between 2005 and 2011, namely the UN Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework and the UN Guiding Principles on BHR (UNGPs). The UN Framework was published in 2008 and establishes the conceptual foundation upon which the UNGPs are built. The UNGPs, on the other hand, can be interpreted as the operationalization of the UN Framework. After distinguishing the SRSG's approach from the earlier UN Draft Norms, the chapter discusses the three pillars of the UN Framework and the UNGPs, consisting of the state duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and access to remedy. Subsequently, it engages in a critical assessment of the UNGPs, outlining both the key achievements and the main criticism of the UNGPs. Such criticism aims at the principled pragmatism underlying the UNGPs, the foundational role of social expectations, the UNGPs’ lack of enforcement, and the distribution of responsibility between government and companies.

The emphasis of this chapter is on particular BHR issues and challenges as they arise in different industries, how those industries deal with them, and what specific policy instruments have been put in place to address those issues. The brief overviews provided do not aim at being comprehensive, but rather at giving short introductions to the prevailing challenges, solutions, and best practices in some of the industries that are most exposed to human rights risks and impacts. Furthermore, it will outline some of the more prominent sector-specific guidelines and initiatives in these industries.The following industries are dealt with: the Extractive sector; the Finance and Banking sector; the Information and Communication Technology sector; the Garment and Footwear sector; and the Food, Beverage, and Agribusiness sector.

This chapter deals with the implementation of corporate human rights responsibility. It introduces human rights due diligence (HRDD) as a legal standard and managerial process. It outlines the elements of a HRDD process, consisting of the identification of human rights impacts, responding to the impacts, tracking the responses, and reporting on their effectiveness. A number of specific tools are touched on, such as human rights policy commitments, human rights impact assessments, operational-level grievance mechanisms, and human rights measurement and performance indicators. The chapter also engages with the requirement of effective remediation of negative human rights impacts. Some common implementation challenges and criticisms of HRDD are discussed. In a final step, the chapter reflects on what else corporations ought to do beyond HRDD to truly organize for human rights. Particular attention is given to fostering rights-respecting business cultures. Topics addressed in this regard range from responsible leadership to value-based recruiting practices to the importance of incentives and remuneration.

Human rights and business have long been perceived as two separate domains, with human rights considered to be a shield and protection against the abuse of governmental power. It has only been more recently that private actors such as corporations have come onto the radar of human rights scholars, while those concerned with corporations and corporate responsibility have hardly adopted a human rights perspective. Hence, bringing business and human rights together has not been intuitive for either human rights scholars or corporate responsibility researchers. Accordingly, learning “business and human rights” (BHR) actually means unlearning both business and human rights, at least to some degree. A certain taken-for-grantedness of “business as usual” often provides fertile ground for corporate human rights violations and the inadequacies of the current international legal system that provides the shield for their impunity.

This chapter outlines the evolution of BHR since the 1990s in three stages: the beginnings, the growth phase, and, finally, the time of consolidation. Before doing so, it touches on three significant precursors, which are often overlooked in more cursory historical accounts of the BHR movement. Those are the Nuremburg Trials, the activities of Western companies in apartheid South Africa, and the opposition of the local Ogoni population against oil extraction in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Furthermore, it outlines a number of BHR initiatives such as the UN Global Compact, the UN Draft Norms and the mandate of the UN Special Representative on BHR and its main product, the UN Guiding Principles on BHR (UNGPs).The chapter describes the evolution of BHR both as a movement and as an academic field.

This chapter provides an overview of some of the more common human rights violations with corporate involvement. The non-exhaustive overview aims to provide some initial insights into how corporate conduct can affect and impact human rights and to show the breadth of issues that fall under a BHR lens. Hence, the focus is on problems rather than solutions. The issues and violations dealt with are selected with a view on multinational corporations in particular. Furthermore, the selected issues are cross-cutting – that is, not specific to one particular industry. The chapter covers human rights problems relating to employment relations, corporate supply chains, affected communities, the environment, and particularly vulnerable groups such as Indigenous peoples or human rights defenders. Violations include discrimination, child labor, forced labor and modern slavery, and land grabbing, among others.