Business and Human Rights

This unique collection gathers together important instruments dealing with the relationship between business and a range of topics such as labour rights, security issues, environmental protection, anti-corruption, good governance, poverty alleviation and development, which all have important human rights dimensions. The premise for the collection is that business has both the responsibility and the opportunity to respect and support human rights. Selected instruments cover various stages of business involvement with human rights issues, spanning codes of conduct, monitoring, reporting, certification, lables and partnerships for development. Initiatives of institutional investors, social index providers, insurers, and banks are also covered. Websites for each instrument and its issuer are provided in order to facilitate updates and further inquiry into the issuer's activities. The introduction seeks to offer a perspective for examining voluntary initiatives and corporate social responsibility, one of today's most controversial human rights topics.