I highly recommend that readers check out an article entitled “In Human Rights, the Cup is Two-Thirds Full,” by legal journalist Michael Goldhaber, which provides a summary of a recent Columbia Law School conference at its Human Rights Institute.  The question at hand:  has the world made progress in advancing human rights in the past 10 years?

While the answer to that question and the various responses were ambiguous (the George W. Bush era certainly has taken its toll), there is at least the beginnings of a discussion about the role of investing corporations in upholding human rights standards - something that this blog has been focused on since inception.  Here is Chris Avery remarking on the shift in pressurs on companies to develop corporate social responsibility programs:

“Ten years ago, the field of business human rights didn’t exist,” began Chris Avery, the founding director of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in London. Yet the approach has been rapidly embraced by human rights NGOs, the United Nations, and national human rights commissions. Most importantly, Avery said, the private sector is more susceptible to pressure than the public sector, with a majority of the top 100 London-listed companies already having adopted policies of corporate social responsibility.

Avery’s point here is rather unobjectionable, and I do agree that business human rights is one of the most important developments in this area, however I still think that most corporations are behind the curve.  The paradigm has shifted to such a dramatic degree that relations between states and businesses is no longer one of traditional accountability and responsibility.  Take for example a number of corporations investing in Africa and parts of Asia which are virtually being handed the de facto role of the state - a new level of responsibility to local communities that a flimsy CSR plan prepared by the PR department is ill-equipped to handle.  This brings me back to one of my central and oft-repeated points about the necessity of developing strong corporate foreign policies - that the new reality of investing in emerging markets means that companies really need to begin demonstrating their follow-through on commitments, and fully assuming the responsibilities of their new roles.