Business and Human Rights in the Post Westphalia Era: A Democracy-Based Assessment.
Type
doctoral thesis
Date Issued
2016-10-24
Author(s)
Abstract
Globalization is transforming political power relationships. As the regulatory power of the state declines, corporations, in conjunction with other non-state agents, engage in the provision of public goods and participate in the regulation of the vacuums left behind by waning states. Globalization forces us to re-think how and who should assume the responsibilities derived from human rights in a context where the state is not the exclusive actor anymore.
Today, the assumption that corporations do have human rights responsibilities is almost undisputed. Yet, how should corporations discharge these responsibilities? This is a question that has not received sufficient attention within the BHR field. As the debate expands, though, this question becomes highly topical to address. This is the central research question of this dissertation.
The lack of scholarly focus on the how question comes along with an enhanced risk that the BHR debate endorses a materialistic conception of human rights. That is, one in which rights-holders are presented as passive agents in the realization of their own rights, and the responsibilities of corporations are conceived from beginning to end with the provision of certain goods, capabilities or resources.
Consequently, the research question is addressed from a democracy perspective. The analysis will reveal that a hypothetical materialistic approach to the realization of human rights responsibilities would strengthen, rather than weaken, potential patterns of injustice and domination. Human rights are not exhausted by the provision of certain goods. They also have a political dimension that must be realized. Such dimension entails that we all have the right to demand and provide justification for all those institutions that bind us. Therefore, any just and complete realization of human rights inexorably requires realizing this basic right. The philosopher Rainer Forst labels it as the “basic right to justification”
This dissertation defends the thesis that when corporations are identified as human rights duty bearers they should discharge their responsibilities guaranteeing, in the first place, the right to justification. This may require corporations to create institutions or mechanism that secure this right to the victims of abuses. These institutions, I claim, should be constructed around four premises: they should be victim-centered, contextualized, oriented towards solving the injustices that led to the human rights violations, and function along the parameters of deliberative democracy.
Today, the assumption that corporations do have human rights responsibilities is almost undisputed. Yet, how should corporations discharge these responsibilities? This is a question that has not received sufficient attention within the BHR field. As the debate expands, though, this question becomes highly topical to address. This is the central research question of this dissertation.
The lack of scholarly focus on the how question comes along with an enhanced risk that the BHR debate endorses a materialistic conception of human rights. That is, one in which rights-holders are presented as passive agents in the realization of their own rights, and the responsibilities of corporations are conceived from beginning to end with the provision of certain goods, capabilities or resources.
Consequently, the research question is addressed from a democracy perspective. The analysis will reveal that a hypothetical materialistic approach to the realization of human rights responsibilities would strengthen, rather than weaken, potential patterns of injustice and domination. Human rights are not exhausted by the provision of certain goods. They also have a political dimension that must be realized. Such dimension entails that we all have the right to demand and provide justification for all those institutions that bind us. Therefore, any just and complete realization of human rights inexorably requires realizing this basic right. The philosopher Rainer Forst labels it as the “basic right to justification”
This dissertation defends the thesis that when corporations are identified as human rights duty bearers they should discharge their responsibilities guaranteeing, in the first place, the right to justification. This may require corporations to create institutions or mechanism that secure this right to the victims of abuses. These institutions, I claim, should be constructed around four premises: they should be victim-centered, contextualized, oriented towards solving the injustices that led to the human rights violations, and function along the parameters of deliberative democracy.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Publisher
University of St Gallen
Publisher place
St Gallen
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
258964
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Name
Dis4632.pdf
Size
2.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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