Transnational Corporations and the Duty to Respect Basic Human Rights

Article 1:

Transnational Corporations and the Duty to Respect Basic Human Rights

Denis G. Arnold

Arnold explains that Transnational Corporations (TNCs) supports human rights by providing jobs with compensation for decent standard living, safe and healthy work conditions and respecting the rules of law. The tripartite framework regarding business and human rights include three approaches; moral, political, and legal. Although all three interwind with one another Arnold argues that the moral approach to basic human rights is the only justification towards corporate responsibility to respect human rights because it is the only strategic approach out of the three.

Article 2:

The Case for Leverage-Based Corporate Human Rights Responsibility

Stepan Wood

Wood believes that leverage in companies are necessary since its one factor giving rise to responsibility even where the company is not itself contributing adverse human rights impacts. He states that leverage in his case means, “its ability to influence their decision or activities for better or worse” (p.1) The three issues he describes about leverage and sphere of influence (SoI) are; 1) the relationship between companies impacts on human rights and their leverage over other actors, 2) the relationship between negative and positive forms of responsibilities, and 3) the relationship between companies’ human rights obligations and their optional efforts to support human rights.

Reaction:

Stepan Wood believes that a leverage in a company is the ability to contribute to improving a situation by exercising influence over other actors through its relationships. There should be a connection between the company and right holders in regard to the product and/or services so there is a positive responsibility to protect, promote and fulfill human rights. He concludes his article by stating that leverage is morally significant due to its strength of the connections established by a company’s web of activities and relationships that set the scope of corporate human rights responsibilities.