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Background: Understanding the Different Ways Business Activity Can Infringe Human Rights

Internationally recognized human rights outlined in core human rights instruments guarantee all people equal and inalienable rights by virtue of their inherent human dignity.² These instruments appropriately pay particular attention to the role of states, as the primary duty holder under international law, in upholding these rights. The state’s role includes protecting individuals and communities from human rights abuses committed by businesses and other non-state actors. Businesses and other actors, however, also have responsibilities themselves. As the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights phrases it, “every organ of society” does.³

The moral and legal debate over how to define the human rights responsibilities of businesses tends to be argued on an abstract level. Considerable effort, for example, has been made to raise awareness about the fundamental concept of complicity, under which business may share in responsibility for abuses by third parties, as well as to elaborate on the applicability to business of basic human rights principles. Yet confusion over basic factual matters persists. At the most fundamental level, there is no shared assessment of the extent of the impact that business practices have on human rights. Instead, available information can be interpreted in very different ways.

For example, the frequent observation that certain industries, such as the extractive industries, have faced repeated human rights controversies, when presented without reference to examples from a range of other industries, can form an impression that human rights problems are highly segmented and limited to a few sectors. By the same token, the special attention given to the particular problems that can arise in certain business contexts, such as areas of violent conflict or so-called weak governance zones, when considered in isolation, can suggest that business-related abuses do not occur on a global scale. Likewise, the connection between business activity and certain sets of rights, especially labor rights, can lead to assumptions that other rights are intrinsically less affected by business practices.

The striking nature of some types of abuses in which companies have been implicated, including war crimes, can draw attention away from systematic and entrenched abuses that may be considered unremarkable. The frequent and natural tendency to focus on particularly egregious abuses can obscure the fact that many other business impacts on human rights can cause serious harm to affected individuals and communities, particularly when they disproportionately affect certain groups or exacerbate existing discriminatory patterns in communities.

The lack of common understanding of the nature and scope of the problem has important implications. One result is that, to date, many debates about business responsibility and policies aimed at improving corporate conduct have neglected to fully consider human rights issues. For example, a number of business initiatives that address human rights have emerged in response to specific problems and define their scope accordingly. They therefore typically have a limited reach and apply only to individual companies or industries or particular country contexts.

Even within their particular zone of application, moreover, such industry- or region-specific initiatives have not always been fully consistent with international human rights standards. Indeed, at present there is no widely recognized set of standards on business and human rights that provides an overarching framework and reference point for these diverse initiatives.

In order to foster a more complete understanding of the role, effects, and responsibilities of business in relation to human rights, and thereby to help shape appropriate solutions, it is helpful to take stock of the cross-cutting ways in which enjoyment of rights can be harmed as a result of business activities.

Impacts on human rights may result from such core business activities as employing staff, building or utilizing facilities, consuming and manufacturing materials or providing services, and interacting with community members and governments. As the nature of business operations continues to change and evolve so too will the ways and contexts in which such operations can affect human rights.

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