by Anthony P. Ewing[1]
Lecturer, Columbia Law School
Co-Director, Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum
aewing@law.columbia.edu
Introduction
The Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook gathers best practices and helpful resources for teaching business and human rights, a field that presents common challenges for the growing number of instructors worldwide.[2] Everyone teaching the subject is familiar with these issues:
- Where does business and human rights fit in university curricula?
- What topics should be covered in a business and human rights course?
- What skills do students need to practice business and human rights in their respective professions?
- What is the most effective way to teach the subject and what teaching resources are available?
Teachers and practitioners, through initiatives like the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, are building a community of practice to collaborate on these issues and advance business and human rights education.
This introduction to teaching business and human rights: 1) defines the field of business and human rights, 2) provides a brief history of business and human rights education, 3) surveys the scope and content of business and human rights courses, and 4) describes available teaching resources.
Business and Human Rights
“Business and human rights” has emerged over the past twenty-five years as a distinct field of practice and study at the intersection of business, law and public policy.
Business and human rights (BHR) is simultaneously a practical movement – seeking justice for victims of human rights abuse, corporate accountability for human rights violations, and the adoption of human rights-protective business practices – and an academic subject addressing the responsibilities of business and the means to achieve the movement’s ends.[3] The BHR field is the result of the promulgation by states of universal human rights standards; recognition by the international community of the role of non-state actors in the protection of human rights; and the globalization of business operations and markets at a time when technology makes information about corporate practices and human rights conditions worldwide immediately accessible.
The rapid development of this multi-disciplinary field is remarkable. When companies operating in China adopted the first corporate human rights codes of conduct in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests and military crackdown in 1989, business managers and human rights advocates could scarcely speak the same language.[4] By 2011, when Egyptian demonstrators filled Tahrir Square, business people and advocates alike could frame the human rights issues at stake in the shared language and concepts of corporate human rights responsibilities.[5] In just two decades, the field of business and human rights had come into its own.[6]
The business and human rights movement has expanded in scope from an initial focus on labor conditions in global supply chains and corporate complicity with repressive states, to examine human rights conditions in industries as diverse as agriculture, healthcare and technology.[7] The human rights affected by corporate conduct now are understood to encompass the full range of internationally recognized human rights, including the rights to health;[8] to adequate food and water;[9] and to privacy and freedom of expression.[10] Tools for holding companies accountable for their human rights impacts and influencing business practice have multiplied, building on early efforts to change business practice through consumer boycotts, shareholder activism and civil litigation.[11]
The development and promulgation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011),[12] endorsed unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council, has forged a working consensus among business and human rights actors on the elements defining a corporate responsibility to respect human rights.
Business and human rights practitioners today include advocates, policymakers and managers. Human rights advocates continue to shine a spotlight on corporate abuses in a wide range of industries, defend victims, and work to hold companies accountable for the human rights impacts of their operations worldwide.[13] States are addressing the human rights impacts of business through national legislation and regulation, such as mandatory corporate human rights reporting,[14] and national action plans.[15] Companies are paying greater attention to the human rights risks connected to their businesses and contributing to a growing body of corporate human rights practice by adopting human rights policies, conducting human rights due diligence, and exploring ways to prevent, mitigate and remedy actual and potential human rights impacts. As a result, governments, business enterprises, and civil society organizations increasingly find themselves managing business and human rights challenges.
Business and Human Rights Education
As more and more individuals in the private sector, government and civil society grapple with the human rights issues touching business operations, teachers are working to meet the growing demand for business and human rights education among students, at academic institutions, and within companies.
Business and human rights has been taught as an academic subject, in some form, for twenty-five years. Human rights courses have addressed business and human rights topics since initial international efforts in the 1970s to apply international human rights standards to corporations as non-state actors,[16] and the campaign seeking corporate divestment from Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. The first stand-alone business and human rights course at a United States business school was offered in 1990 at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in the wake of the debate over corporate human rights responsibilities in China.[17] The course examined the impact on transnational business practices of international human rights standards and growing calls from human rights advocates for companies to accept responsibility for minimum labor standards in their global supply chains, and for human rights conditions in the markets where they operate.[18] Introductory courses at Harvard Business School and at INSEAD (France) included emerging human rights issues by the late 1990s.[19]
More than a hundred universities have added business and human rights courses to their curricula in the past decade.[20] The subject is now being taught at business schools, law schools, and schools of public policy worldwide. While these courses have proliferated most rapidly in Australia, Europe and North America, business and human rights education is underway in every region. In Asia, universities in China, Japan and Singapore offer coursework in business and human rights. Almost 300 students have attended the “Business and Human Rights” course at Peking University Law School, which has offered the subject for more than a decade.[21] In Africa, business and human rights courses are offered at the university level in South Africa. The Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Law, for example, hosts a Business and Human Rights Programme.[22] In Latin America, business and human rights courses have been taught in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. The Human Rights and Business Centre of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, for example, organizes an international seminar on human rights and business.[23] A focus for educators is promoting business and human rights education in the geographies where rightsholders affected by transnational corporate operations reside.[24]
At the same time, companies are conducting in-house human rights training for their employees and business partners.[25] International initiatives, like the UN Global Compact and industry trade associations, have developed business and human rights training resources.[26] A Human Rights and Business Learning Tool, developed by the UN Global Compact and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for example, offers a certificate programme on business and human rights practices aimed at corporate managers and staff.[27] Professional education, such as the continuing legal education offered by law societies and bar associations, presents additional opportunities for teaching business and human rights.[28]
The community of business and human rights teachers, trainers and scholars is expanding. The Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, a platform for collaboration among individuals teaching business and human rights worldwide launched in 2011, has grown to include more than 234 members teaching business and human rights at some 139 institutions in 32 countries.[29] A European social science research network, the BHRights Initiative, was launched in 2014.[30]
Business and human rights courses are being developed and taught despite no clear home for business and human rights in traditional university curricula. The subject is inherently multidisciplinary, drawing upon more established academic disciplines such as law, management, business ethics, public policy and international relations.[31] This can be an obstacle to advancing business and human rights education when traditional academic departments provide few incentives to introduce business and human rights topics in the curriculum. However, an interdisciplinary approach to business and human rights scholarship is emerging. [32] The Business and Human Rights Journal,[33] launched in 2016, promotes interdisciplinary scholarship and “debate on all issues concerning the intersection of business and human rights.” Creative inter-disciplinary courses are applying a business and human rights lens to disciplines in other faculties, such as engineering.[34] At the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, the Business and Human Rights Project promotes dialogue and research across law and the social and natural sciences.[35]
Business and Human Rights Courses
The scope and content of business and human rights courses vary widely, shaped by individual teachers and the faculties, geographies and the institutions in which the subject is taught.[36]
At law schools, the content of business and human rights courses most commonly overlaps with traditional human rights, international and corporate law curricula. Business and human rights courses for law students commonly address competing definitions of corporate responsibility, the human rights responsibilities of business under international law, legal and policy tools to provide remedies to victims and hold companies accountable for human rights violations, and what companies are doing to manage the human rights impacts of their operations and business relationships. Law courses seek to equip students to understand international human rights standards, spot the human rights impacts of business operations, and advise both companies and advocates on effective best practices. Clinical courses provide opportunities for students to research violations, advocate for victims, and advise companies and policymakers. Business and human rights issues may also be covered in existing law courses, such as courses on corporate governance, trade law and foreign investment. Law teachers have also developed courses on the human rights issues facing specific industry sectors, such as information technology[37] and the extractives sector.[38]
At schools of public policy, business and human rights courses have considered how to “incorporate international human rights standards and ethical business practices into the design, implementation and evaluation of multinational business activities, especially in developing countries.”[39] Courses cover “the political, legal, social, economic, and ethical forces acting upon business,” helping students to understand “how managers make decisions about ethics and social responsibility, how they interact with policymakers and other stakeholders,” and how they “deal with complex policy issues.”[40] Topics may include the history of corporate responsibility; legal, regulatory and policy frameworks; specific cases and industries; and the role of different stakeholders.[41] Policy courses seek to prepare students to “critically evaluate the responsibilities and actions of key actors in situations where corporate-related human rights abuses have occurred, including what prevention and/or mitigation steps could be effective.”[42] Clinical offerings have collaborated with civil society organizations on BHR tools and methodologies.[43]
At business schools, business and human rights may be addressed within an ethics course – framing human rights issues as ethical dilemmas that arise in business operations – or considered under the rubric of “corporate social responsibility” or “corporate citizenship.” Business and human rights topics may also be covered as a module[44] in other disciplines such as supply chain management, human resources or business law, or in relation to a particular industry.
For years, commentators have called for the incorporation of business and human rights education into business school curricula as the most effective means to advance the field of business and human rights.[45]
“Any future business education programme, whether set in a local or global context, must contain the language and action of social justice, human rights, community economics and ethics . . . . The revolution is for business schools to become places where our personal values and economic interests intersect.” – Anita Roddick, Founder, The Body Shop International (2000)[46]
“I honestly think Microsoft and the Gap are not well-served by business schools that don’t include human rights in the curriculum. . . . [B]usiness schools need to wake up to the reality of what’s happening in the business world.” Dan Bross, Senior Director, Business and Corporate Responsibility, Microsoft (2016)[47]
The uptake of business and human rights teaching and scholarship by business schools has been slow compared to its acceptance in other faculties,[48] however, a number of recent efforts to integrate human rights in the curricula of prominent business schools may signal that the tide is shifting. In 2013, the NYU Stern School of Business in New York launched a Center for Business and Human Rights.[49] A similar Human Rights & Business Initiative is underway at the Hass School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.[50] In Europe, the Business School Lausanne has established a “Platform for Business and Human Rights” to integrate “human rights in business school studies, foster thought leadership and carry out relevant research.”[51] The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME)[52] has established a Business and Human Rights Working Group to engage business schools in curriculum change and research pertaining to human rights in a business context.[53]
While recent teaching and research developments are encouraging, there remains an unmet demand for university and professional school graduates who understand the relevance of international human rights standards for business; are familiar with the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and have been exposed to best practices for managing the human rights impacts of business.
“In a world of reputation risk and increasing calls for accountability, students need academic institutions to equip them with an understanding of human rights, what it means for companies to respect human rights, and how to leverage business and human rights opportunities. Students preparing today for careers in business, law and government expect universities to equip them with the knowledge and skills to manage the human rights impacts of business.” – An Open Letter to Academic Institutions: Educate Future Managers and Leaders on Business and Human Rights[54]
Teaching Resources
Methods for teaching business and human topics are as diverse as the individuals teaching the subject, and the students studying it. Teaching a multidisciplinary subject allows for creative pedagogy. Many business and human rights instructors are experimenting with alternatives to traditional lectures and classroom discussion, such as simulations, role-playing exercises, debates, clinical work and online courses. Instructors are sharing comparative teaching strategies for different students in different geographies. Corporate training is producing even more customized approaches to covering the subject matter for executives, managers and employees.[55]
A burgeoning business and human rights literature draws upon 25 years of business practice, conceptual frameworks like that offered by the UN Guiding Principles, and new academic research. For many years, business and human rights teachers have assigned readings and assembled teaching resources from disparate sources. A typical course syllabus includes a mix of academic articles; secondary sources; national laws and regulations; reports by governments, international organizations and civil society; and publicly available corporate materials. The six-year mandate of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights generated a slew of materials that can be used in the classroom. The UN Global Compact publishes case studies and good practice notes. A growing inventory of business teaching cases address business and human rights[56] and a number of business and human textbooks are now available.[57] Initiatives to promote business and human rights academic research are also underway.[58]
A Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook
The Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook is intended to advance business and human rights education by providing teachers an online resource they can use to supplement what they already teach, or to help them introduce new topics in their courses.
The topics in the Handbook are those most commonly covered in business and human rights courses taught by members of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum. The list of teaching notes is neither exhaustive nor intended to define a core business and human rights curriculum (although the list would be a good starting point). The Teaching Notes gathered here are designed to spark ideas for the seasoned professor and prospective instructor alike.
Conclusion
Educating future managers, advocates and policymakers on business and human rights issues is a critical means to advance the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Promoting business and human rights education in every setting, and teaching it effectively, has the potential to strengthen the enjoyment, protection and provision of human rights; to help companies meet their responsibilities and improve business performance; and to deepen our knowledge across academic disciplines.
Notes
[*] This introduction may be cited as:
Anthony P. Ewing, “Teaching Business and Human Rights,” in Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook (Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, 2016), https://teachbhr.org/resources/teaching-bhr-handbook/introduction-teaching-business-and-human-rights/.
[1] Anthony Ewing has taught the course “Transnational Business and Human Rights” at Columbia University since 2001.
[2] See, e.g., Anthony P. Ewing, “Teaching Business and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities” Institute for Human Rights and Business (Oct. 2011), available at: http://www.ihrb.org/commentary/guest/teaching_business_and_human_rights-challenges_and_opportunities.html.
[3] Michael A. Santoro, “Business and Human Rights in Historical Perspective,” Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 14, no. 2, 3 Apr. 2015), 155.
[4] See, e.g., Diane F. Orentlicher and Timothy A. Gelatt, “Public Law, Private Actors: The Impact of Human Rights on Business Investors in China,” Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business (Vol. 14, 1993-1994), 66, 96 (“as one corporation after another seeks to meet its human rights responsibilities, there is a pressing need for clarity about what, precisely, those responsibilities are.”)
[5] See, e.g., Salil Tripathi, “Commentary: How Businesses Have Responded in Egypt,” Institute for Human Rights and Business (London: 7 Feb. 2011), available at http://www.ihrb.org/commentary/how-businesses-responded-egypt.html.
[6] See also, “Preface,” in Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and Justine Nolan, eds., Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016), xix.
[7] See, e.g., Justine Nolan, “Business and Human Rights in Context,” in Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and Justine Nolan, eds., Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016), 2.
[8] See, e.g., Joo-Young Lee and Paul Hunt, “Human Rights Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines,” Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (Vol. 40, July 2012), 220.
[9] See, e.g., “Agribusiness and the right to food,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, UN doc. A/HRC/13/33 (22 December 2009), available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-33.pdf; Institute for Human Rights and Business, More than a Resource: Water, Business and Human Rights (2011), available at: http://www.ihrb.org/pdf/More_than_a_resource_Water_business_and_human_rights.pdf.
[10] See, e.g., Michael Samway, “The Global Network Initiative: How Can Companies in the Information and Communications Technmology Industry Respect Human Rights?,” in Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and Justine Nolan, eds., Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016), 136; European Commission, ICT Sector Guide on Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Institute for Human Rights and Business and Shift, 2013), available at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/files/csr-sme/csr-ict-hr-business_en.pdf.
[11] While access to judicial remedies have narrowed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kiobel decision, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 569 U.S. ___, 133 S. Ct. 1659 (April 17, 2013), corporate accountability efforts have shifted to holding companies accountable for adopting best practices. See Anita Ramasastry, “Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability,” Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 14, 2015) 237, 248.
[12] “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework,” Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises,” UN doc. A/HRC/17/31 (21 March 2011), available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf (“UN Guiding Principles”). See Teaching Note: Introducing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
[13] See, e.g., Elodie Aba, “‘It’s a Noble Struggle’: The Human Rights Lawyers Taking on Big Corporations,” The Guardian, September 22, 2015, available at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/sep/22/meet-the-human-rights-lawyers-challenging-big-corporations?CMP=share_btn_tw.
[14] See, e.g., Anthony P. Ewing, “Mandatory Human Rights Reporting,” in Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and Justine Nolan, eds., Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016), 284.
[15] Claire Methven O’Brien, Amol Mehra, Sara Blackwell and Cathrine Bloch Poulsen-Hansen, “National Action Plans: Current Status and Future Prospects for a New Business and Human Rights Governance Tool,” Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 1, 2016), 1, 117-126.
[16] See, e.g., David Weissbrodt and Muria Kruger, “Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights,” American Journal of International Law (Vol. 97, 2003), 901.
[17] See Christopher L. Avery, Business and Human Rights in a Time of Change (Nov. 1999), available at: http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Chapter1.htm; citing P. Schwartz and B. Gibb, When Good Companies Do Bad Things: Responsibility and Risk in an Age of Globalization (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999), xi.
[18] Elliot J. Schrage, “International Business B9501-33: Seminar in Corporate/International Relations, Transnational Business and International Human Rights” (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, Fall 1994), on file with author. The course was developed and first taught by Diane F. Orentlicher, Eli Noam, Elliot Schrage and Nadine Strossen.
[19] Chris Marsden, “Human rights teaching in Business schools,” in Human rights & Business Matters (Amnesty International UK Business Group Newsletter, Spring 1999).
[20] Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, TeachBHR.org (accessed May 2016).
[21] Remarks by Liang Xiaohui, Teaching Business and Human Rights Workshop (Columbia University, May 19th, 2015).
[22] Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, “Business and Human Rights Unit,” http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/about-business-human-rights.html.
[23] “III International Seminar on Human Rights and Business,” http://homacdhe.com/iii-seminar/en/.
[24] See, e.g., Masha Baraza, “Bringing the Business and Human Rights Agenda to Higher Education in Africa,” Institute for Human Rights and Business (London: April 4th, 2014). The Human Rights and Business Academy (HURBA) conducted an inaugural summer BHR course in collaboration with the Indian Law Institute Delhi in New Delhi, India in 2016.
[25] See, e.g., Elissa Goldenberg, BSR Blog, “Human Rights Training: Who Needs It, What They Need to Know, and How It Should Work,” (25 Sept. 2012), available at http://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/blog-view/human-rights-training; UN Global Compact, “Human Rights Training and Engagement,” Good Practice Note (forthcoming, 2016).
[26] See, e.g., UN Global Compact, Human Rights and Business Dilemmas Forum, http://hrbdf.org; IPIECA, Human Rights Training Tool (3rd ed., 2014), available at: http://www.ipieca.org/publication/human-rights-training-toolkit-3rd-edition; ICMM, ICRC, IFC and IPIECA, Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights: Implementation Guidance Tools, available at: http://www.voluntaryprinciples.org/files/Implementation_Guidance_Tools.pdf.
[27] UN Global Compact and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Human Rights and Business Learning Tool,” available at: http://human-rights-and-business-learning-tool.unglobalcompact.org/site/.
[28] Advocates for International Development (UK), for example, offers a Business and Human Rights Course for practicing lawyers. http://www.a4id.org/event/business-and-human-rights-course-law-firms. An advisory committee of the Law Society of England and Wales has recommended that business and human rights be a required part of legal training and professional development. See, Kathleen Hall, “Business and human rights ‘should be a legal training requirement’,” The Law Society Gazette (26 March 2014). The International Bar Association has developed the “IBA Practical Guide on Business and Human Rights for Business Lawyers” (June 2016), available at: http://www.ibanet.org/Document/Default.aspx?DocumentUid=d6306c84-e2f8-4c82-a86f-93940d6736c4.
[29] Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, TeachBHR.org (accessed May 2016).
[30] Copenhagen Business School, The BHRight Initiative, http://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-intercultural-communication-and-management/the-bhright-initiative. (“The BHRight Initiative is an interdisciplinary academic network of more than 20 members . . . specialized in human rights, sustainability or CSR . . . represent[ing] a range of social science disciplines, including . . . law, management and organizational studies, economics, and business ethics.)
[31] See, e.g., Santoro, “Business and Human Rights in Historical Perspective,” supra n. 3, at 155.
[32] See, e.g., Michael Santoro and Florian Wettstein, “Human Rights,” Oxford Bibliographies (last modified, 27 March 2014) (“There is now a broad interdisciplinary and dynamic discussion on the potential human rights responsibilities of business.”), available at: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846740/obo-9780199846740-0023.xml. See also Anita Ramasastry, “Business and Human Rights in the American Legal Academy “ Cambridge Journals Blog (21 January 2016) (“Until recently, U.S.-based legal scholars have taken a relatively narrow approach to the topic . . . .”), available at: http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/2016/01/21/business-and-human-rights-in-the-american-legal-academy/.
[33] Cambridge Journals Online, “Business and Human Rights Journal,” accessed October 7, 2015, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=BHJ.
[34] Shareen Hertel and Allison MacKay, “Engineering and Human Rights: Teaching Across the Divide,” Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 1, 2016), 159.
[35] University of Essex, “Business and Human Rights Project,” available at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebhr/.
[36] The Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum maintains a Syllabi Bank for business and human rights courses or modules taught by Forum members. The syllabi contained there were consulted as background in the preparation of this introduction.
[37] See, e.g., Rebecca Mackinnon and Cynthia Wong, Course Syllabus, “Research Seminar: Human Rights, Corporate Responsibility, and Information Communications Technology” (University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2013), available at: https://pennlaw.instructure.com/courses/1092631/assignments/syllabus.
[38] See, e.g., Andrea Shemberg, Course Handbook, “Business and Human Rights Law and Policy in Oil, Gas and Mining” (University of Dundee, Scotland, 2014), on file with author.
[39] See, e.g., J. Paul Martin and Marcela Manubens, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, “Human Rights and International Business and the Global Economy” (Fall 2001), on file with author.
[40] Susan Ariel Aaronson, Syllabus, “Social Responsibilities of Business”(George Washington University, School of International Affairs, 2014), on file with author.
[41] See, e.g., Aaronson, supra; Bauer, infra; Nina Gardner and Katherine Gorove, Syllabus, “International Business and Human Rights” (Johns Hopkins SAIS, Spring 2013), on file with author; Martin and Manubens, supra.
[42] Joanne Bauer, Syllabus, “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Human Rights Approach” (School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Fall 2014), on file with author.
[43] See, e.g., Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights, “Business and Human Rights Clinic,” available at: http://www.humanrightscolumbia.org/bhr.
[44] See, e.g., Chris Marsden, “Teaching Business and Human Rights: A teaching module for business school tutors” (Cranfield School of Management, 2012), available at: http://www.ihrb.org/pdf/2013-11-18_IHRB_Teaching-Module.pdf.
[45] See, e.g., World Resources Institute and The Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business, Beyond Grey Pinstripes (2001), 15 (“the real innovation in business education is found in courses that blend social impact management with traditional business disciplines such as finance, accounting, marketing, and organizational behavior — courses taken by the majority of MBA students.”); Nadia Bernaz, “Enhancing Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations: Is Extraterritoriality the Magic Potion?,” Journal of Business Ethics 117, no. 3 (2013), 493 (“Human rights need to be embedded into corporate policies at all levels until they are seen as a given. . . . One such measure may be the systematic inclusion of a human rights module in business degrees so that tomorrow’s managers are familiar with the issues and find their own ways to address them.”); Caroline Kaeb and David Scheffer, “The Corporate Joust with Morality,” Opinio Juris (June 6th, 2016) (“. . . focusing on what business schools . . . teach business students in core management classes . . . is important to review and get right. This entails teaching the protection, enforcement, and indeed advancement of human rights and other societal imperatives within the corporate world. It is in business schools in particular where it all starts, to shape students’ minds to do rights-based business in the 21st Century.”), available at: http://opiniojuris.org/2016/06/06/the-corporate-joust-with-morality/.
[46] Anita Roddick, Business as Unusual (London: Thorsons, 2000), 26.
[47] Quoted in Nathan Allen, “Should Human Rights be Part of an MBA?” Poets & Quants (April 11, 2016), available at: http://poetsandquants.com/2016/04/11/human-rights-initiative-popping-b-schools/.
[48] See, e.g., World Resources Institute and The Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business, Beyond Grey Pinstripes (2001), 14 (“Though an increasingly critical factor in business success, social impact management is relegated to “elective” status in most MBA programs and only a few of those electives embrace a broad consideration of social stewardship issues. “); Robert J. Hanlon and Stephen Frost, “Teaching Corporate Social Responsibility, Human Rights and Corruption: A Survey of 343 Faculty at the Top 20 Business Schools in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings,” Journal of Business Ethics Education (Vol 10, 2013) (“educators are contributing to a learning environment that struggles to incorporate any meaningful or explicit study of human rights and corruption”), 5; Ken McPhail, “Human Rights Should Be on the MBA Curriculum,” Financial Times, accessed September 24, 2015, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/21f1fa54-8aa1-11e3-9465-00144feab7de.html#axzz3mh6k9Ass. (“ Most business school students are unfamiliar with human rights standards and their relevance for business.”); Santoro, “Business and Human Rights in Historical Perspective,” supra n. 3, at 157 (“It is unclear whether management scholars will embrace the BHR paradigm to reframe international business ethics issues.)”
[49] Michael Posner, Business Leaders Must Protect Human Rights – Business School – Companies & Management Video – FT.com, accessed September 24, 2015, http://video.ft.com/4345313816001/Business-leaders-must-protect-human-rights/Companies. See also Chris Jochnik and Louis Bickford, “The Role of Civil Society in Business and Human Rights,” in D. Baumann-Pauly & J. Nolan (eds.), Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (2016), 181, n. 57 (“BHR-minded academic human rights centres and clinics have proliferated in the last two decades . . . .).
[50] Krysten Crawford, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, “Berkeley-Haas Launches Human Rights & Business Initiative,” (Feb. 1, 2016) http://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/article/berkeley-haas-launches-human-rights-business-initiative.
[51] Platform for Business and Human Rights, http://www.bsl-lausanne.ch/thought-leadership/platform-for-business-and-human-rights/.
[52] Launched by the UN Global Compact in 2007, PRME works to promote responsible management education, research and thought leadership globally. The PRME initiative comprises more than 600 business schools and management-related academic institutions from over 80 countries, and has launched twelve regional PRME Chapters. Principles for Responsible Management Education, “History,” http://www.unprme.org/about-prme/history/index.php.
[53] Principles for Responsible Management Education, “Business and Human Rights Working Group,” http://www.unprme.org/working-groups/display-working-group.php?wgid=3306.
[54] UN Global Compact and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), “An Open Letter to Academic Institutions: Educate Future Managers and Leaders on Business and Human Rights” (February 2014) available at: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/action/human-rights-open-letter-to-academics.
[55] See, e.g., Peter Nestor, “Designing Effective Human Rights Training Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” UN Global Compact Good Practice Note (Oct. 2016).
[56] See, e.g., Sandra J. Sucher and Daniel Baer, “Yahoo! in China “(Harvard Business School Case No. 609051, rev. Apr. 25, 2011); Rebecca Henderson and Nien-Hê Hsieh, “Putting the Guiding Principles into Action: Human Rights at Barrick Gold” (Harvard Business School Case No. 9-315-108, rev. April 4, 2016); Andrew Hoffman, “Vodafone Egypt and the Arab Spring: When Government and Business Collide” (WDI Publishing at the University of Michigan, Feb 27, 2015). Until October 2016, the Business and Society Program of the Aspen Institute hosted Caseplace.org, a clearinghouse for teaching materials, which listed 184 items under the “human rights” category, including 93 business school teaching cases. See https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/business-and-society-program/caseplace/.
[57] Edited volumes include: Rory Sullivan, ed., Business and Human Rights: Dilemmas and Solutions (Greenleaf, 2003); Surya Deva and David Bilchitz, eds., Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect? (Cambridge, 2013); Lara Blecher, Nancy Kaymar Stafford and Gretchen C. Bellamy, eds., Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights Impacts: New Expectations and Paradigms (American Bar Association, 2014); Jena Martin and Karen E. Bravo, eds., The Business and Human Rights Landscape: Moving Forward, Looking Back (Cambridge, 2015); Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and Justine Nolan, eds., Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016).
[58] See, e.g., 1st International Business and Human Rights PhD Workshop sponsored by The Institute for Business Ethics at University of St. Gallen, the Business and Human Rights Center at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and the Business and Human Rights Journal (BHRJ).
Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum 