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Towards Corporate Accountability for Human and Environmental Rights Abuses

Towards Corporate Accountability for Human and Environmental Rights Abuses

A Discussion paper by Olivier de Schutter for the ECCJ

Publication

1 April 2007

This paper discusses a limited – but essential – part of the broad debate on corporate accountability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), namely the type of regulation that should be set in place for holding corporations to account for human and environmental rights violations. In the EU, much of the discussion on the social responsibility of corporations hitherto has focused on incentive measures, such as mandatory reporting; the inclusion of social, environmental or human rights clauses in public procurement policies; or other incentives to promote social and environmentally sound production and trade, such as tax breaks for fairtrade products or import restrictions imposed on companies that import products made without respect for core labour, human and environmental rights.