Putting human rights into practice
The United Nations recently formulated the first guiding principles for corporate human rights responsibilities. James Guthrie from the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia was part of the launch of research on the implications of these principles for corporate Australia.
All businesses have a moral obligation to act ethically and contribute positively to civil society. Human rights concerns impact many day-to-day aspects of organisational activity, including reputation, risk management, supply chain, employee relations, contracts and access to debt and equity.
While most corporations would articulate a genuine commitment to supporting human rights, many would also struggle to connect this to practice.
The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provides the first authoritative reference point for corporations’ human rights responsibilities. The Guiding Principles require companies to have a policy commitment in respect to human rights and proactively take steps to address adverse human rights impacts.
In response to a recognition of the potential impacts of the Guiding Principles on corporate governance, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand provided La Trobe Business School with grant funding to undertake ground breaking research on the implications of the Guiding Principles for management and accounting systems within corporate Australia.
I was privileged to be part of the launch of this very important research in Melbourne recently, which focused on practical challenges of and approaches to managing human rights risk in business.
This research shows how to adopt a due diligence framework to manage and mitigate human rights risk. The framework incorporates board level corporate governance, accounting and measurement and auditing and standards. It highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement, education and working with government and non-government organisations.
This blog first appeared here and is republished with the permission of the author.
James Guthrie AM is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance in Macquarie University and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Behavioural Economics and Social Systems (BESS). He was Head of Academic Relations at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand from 2008 to 2017.
