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Beyond Buzzwords: Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence and a Rights-Based Approach to Business Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2023

Marianna Leite Open the ORCID record for Marianna Leite [Opens in a new window]
Marianna Leite*
Affiliation:
ACT Alliance; Human Rights Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal
*
Email: marianna.leite@actalliance.org
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Abstract

This article argues that the trend to zoom into mandatory human rights due diligence (mHRDD) as the sole solution to corporate abuse is misleading. In fact, it might risk missing entirely the main point which, as set out in this article, should be creating economic systems that enable rights-based and rights-driven business models. A small, but growing number of scholarly articles address the economic, fiscal and regulatory institutions needed to create an enabling environment for the fulfilment of human rights. These policy areas constitute what some of us understand as a ‘rights-based economy’ or ‘rights-enabling economies’. State-level efforts would be much more effective in promoting substantive equality if driven by a rights-based approach rather than a market logic. This article contends that while ensuring comprehensive mHRDD is in place as a preventative and mitigation tool, states must also push for transformative macroeconomic policies based on human rights principles as a way to fundamentally change business models.

Keywords

Macroeconomic policiesrights-based economyrights-enabling economiestransformative business models
Type
Scholarly Article
Information
Business and Human Rights Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Beyond human rights due diligence: What else do we need? , June 2023 , pp. 197 - 212
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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56 Ibid.

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118 See, e.g., the submission prepared by the Tax Justice Network, CESR, Berne Declaration, Public Eye and NYU CHRGJ before CEDAW on Switzerland’s responsibility for the extraterritorial impacts of tax abuse on women’s rights, https://www.cesr.org/sites/default/files/downloads/switzerland_cedaw_submission_2nov2016.pdf (accessed 24 March 2023).

119 Balakrishnan and Elson, note 2.

120 For example, in a 2017, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing issued a report focused on the ‘financialization’ of housing and its impact on human rights. ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, and the Right to Non-discrimination in this Context’, A/HRC/34/51, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/009/56/PDF/G1700956.pdf?OpenElement (accessed 24 March 2023). The report examines structural changes in recent years whereby massive amounts of global capital have been invested in housing as a commodity, as a means of accumulating wealth. This is a step towards recognizing the commodification of human rights which is fundamental in understanding how we shield human rights from this commodification trend.

121 Molyneux and Razavi, note 86.

122 Balakrishnan, Heintz and Elson, note 2.