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3.5. CSR: some tentative conclusions
Business can have positive and negative impacts on virtually all human rights, the basic rights and freedoms that we all have by virtue of being human. For this reason, the United Nations Global Compact calls on businesses everywhere to support and respect internationally proclaimed human rights as its first principle. In recent years, important progress has been made in the level of understanding across all types of societal actors on the challenges and opportunities that human rights pose for businesses of all sizes, sectors and geographies.
The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights endorsed in June 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Protect-Respect-Remedy Framework that they elaborate are helpful in explaining the differentiated roles that governments, businesses and other actors play with regard to human rights, adding much needed conceptual and operational clarity. Among other things, they reinforce that it is governments' role to protect human rights and business' role to respect human rights. The Guiding Principles are also helping to accelerate efforts by business to make the management shifts required to ensure that human rights are respected.
The Global Compact's annual implementation survey, which consistently receives over 1,000 corporate respondents around the world, reveals that human rights remains one of the most challenging areas of corporate sustainability. With so much human suffering around the world, there are no shortages of calls on business, as well as opportunities, to take action to improve the situation. The first priority must be to ensure that businesses do not cause or contribute to human rights abuses, and are not involved through their operations, products or services.
An increasing number of businesses are recognizing that innovative core business approaches, strategic social investment, public policy and advocacy, and public private partnerships and other forms of collective action can yield business benefits as well as advance human rights.
The growing consensus that human rights are an important concern and opportunity for business everywhere is a key priority for the UN Global Compact. In addition to the moral case, there is a strong business case for human rights. For instance, global sourcing and distribution means that companies need to be aware of potential human rights issues both upstream and downstream. Further, companies that operate globally are visible to a large-scale audience as a result of advances in communications technologies. Addressing human rights issues positively can bring rewards at the site level, within local communities, and within the broader global commons in which companies operate. Businesses should consider their potential impact on all rights as a strategic part of their business essential to long-term sustainability.
In addition to the Guiding Principles, we have seen an increase in practical guidance for companies on how to respect and support the human rights of particular groups and in specific
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