A multinacionális vállalatok "önkéntes" szociális felelősségéről az ILO, az OECD és az ENSZ kezdeményezései tükrében
The global public interest is growing regarding social responsibility of multinational companies to respect labour rights as human rights. It is not a new idea at all that firms should behave ethically. For a long time, governments have imposed regulations on social responsibilities of companies in...
Elmentve itt :
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| Dokumentumtípus: | Cikk |
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2005
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| Sorozat: | Acta Universitatis Szegediensis : acta juridica et politica : publicationes doctorandorum juridicorum
5 No. 1-13 |
| Kulcsszavak: | Jogtudomány |
| Tárgyszavak: | |
| Online Access: | http://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/7561 |
| Tartalmi kivonat: | The global public interest is growing regarding social responsibility of multinational companies to respect labour rights as human rights. It is not a new idea at all that firms should behave ethically. For a long time, governments have imposed regulations on social responsibilities of companies in national level, as well. However, it is a relatively new phenomenon in international law to consider that multinational companies could have a legal obligation to promote, respect or protect labour rights as human rights. Human rights advocates have traditionally focused on government accountability, but nowadays they are getting to concentrate on the activities of private actors, including multinational enterprises. For the most part, mushrooming issues on corporate social responsibility (CSR) have emphasised voluntary approaches — systems of self-regulation based on uncertain ethical concerns — rather than patterns of legal accountability backed by international or national enforcement mechanisms. As the barriers and weaknesses of voluntarism have emerged, companies, activists and lawyers have even started to look harder at international human rights law. The main concern is that there is no real, international countervailing power to transnational economic decision-making. In other words, human rights and CSR-values are difficult to be canalized into the operation of multinational firms. In the paper I examine the main public CSR-related codes of conduct addressing multinational corporations and deriving from governmental international bodies. Before doing so, I sketch the general frameworks of the examined issues in the first main part of the paper. Concerning general frameworks I treat the following major topics: the non-definition of multinational enterprises, the basic theoretical concepts of corporate social responsibility, the challenging question of voluntarism and I also try to describe some motives for internationally binding CSR-regulation. The following part deals with the presentation and the comparison of the most important and prestigious public CSR-initiatives. I hereby consider the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN's Global Compact and the Draft UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to Human Rights. In terms of the four main standards, four aspects are highlighted: general description (genesis, objectives, drafting, addressees etc.), content, implementation (follow-up) and general evaluation. Although these initiatives are formally endorsed by governments, they rely on the voluntary co-operation of multinationals and remain rather weak. In the last part I outline and contrast some advantages and disadvantages of both voluntary and regulatory approaches towards CSR. One of the main conclusions of the paper is that more attention should be paid to mandatory and enforceable international law, which is able to cross national boundaries, like multinational corporations themselves. In the absence of a framework of legal accountability, voluntary approaches can often be ineffective and they can remain contested. In the meantime it is important to note that regulatory approaches towards CSR are also containing some possible difficulties. |
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| Terjedelem/Fizikai jellemzők: | 171-228 |
| ISSN: | 0324-6523 |