{"title":"The corporate general counsel who respects human rights","authors":"John F. Sherman III","doi":"10.1080/1460728x.2021.1979731","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>ABSTRACT</b></p><p>Global soft law (notably the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ‘UNGPs’), multistakeholder norms, the business practices and policies of leading companies, the expectations of investors and stakeholders, and hard law in a growing number of jurisdictions, all expect that businesses should respect human rights in their operations and in their value chains. The COVID 19 pandemic has made it urgent for corporate legal departments, led by the general counsel, to support the company’s commitment to respect human rights. This means using human rights due diligence to improve human rights performance, rather than as a paper exercise intended primarily to avoid legal liability. This paper provides practical guidance on how corporate general counsel can help their companies conduct authentic and robust human rights due diligence by acting as technical legal experts, wise counsellors, and leaders.</p>","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1460728x.2021.1979731","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Global soft law (notably the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ‘UNGPs’), multistakeholder norms, the business practices and policies of leading companies, the expectations of investors and stakeholders, and hard law in a growing number of jurisdictions, all expect that businesses should respect human rights in their operations and in their value chains. The COVID 19 pandemic has made it urgent for corporate legal departments, led by the general counsel, to support the company’s commitment to respect human rights. This means using human rights due diligence to improve human rights performance, rather than as a paper exercise intended primarily to avoid legal liability. This paper provides practical guidance on how corporate general counsel can help their companies conduct authentic and robust human rights due diligence by acting as technical legal experts, wise counsellors, and leaders.
期刊介绍:
Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance.
Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.