The proper "sphere of influence" in relation to corporate responsibility for human rights
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Date
2010-03-01T12:37:18Z
Authors
Van Niekerk, Andre Johann
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
In this research report, I address the question: “What is the proper sphere of
influence of a corporation in relation to its moral obligations to support and
respect human rights?”
I take for granted that corporations have positive duties to help protect human
rights. Referring to recent reports on sphere of influence by the UN Special
Representative, I consider the question of whom it is that a corporation is obliged
to help. I assert that the predominant spatial metaphor provides an implausible
account of sphere of influence and propose an alternative approach, adopting
principles of respect for the freedom and autonomy of others, with specific
reference to a corporation’s concrete set of social, economic, political and
historical relations with other actors.
I attempt to demonstrate that the proposed approach more plausibly defines the
beneficiaries of a duty to aid in relation to human rights than either a spatial
metaphor or the Special Representative’s principle of a duty to respect human
rights.