Question: Do industrialised societies and established multinational companies use their requirement to respect human rights to limit market entry?

Response: This criticism has been levelled also against western governments when they market the ‘corporate responsibility’ of their national companies, sometimes encouraged or financed with public money, and so creating a distortion to free and competitive trade with emerging economies. This criticism can be overcome of companies involve their partners and suppliers around the world in capacity building and training in relation to human rights.

Question: Do multinational companies push Human Rights requirements onto their suppliers, in particular those in emerging economies, but then not share the financial rewards for doing so? 

Response: This criticism is particularly strongly felt by some exporting companies based in emerging or developing economies who are required by their buyers to adhere to strict human rights standards which are above those required by their national law in their own countries. The objection is that branded western companies, and/or their buyers, receive the reputational and sometimes financial benefit from consumers and investors but little of this benefit is pasted on to them. This criticism, where it exists, can be overcome through collective partnerships, such as the Fair Labour Association, ILO Better Work Initiatives or the Multi-Fibre Alliances, where suppliers are key partners in the process.

Question: Are human rights too western with a bias towards individual rights and do they fail to respect the cultural differences of other parts of the world? 

Response: Human rights are not just civil and political rights; they are also economic, social and cultural rights (such as the right to food, water, housing, work or health). Whilst these are also individual rights, they can only be realised collectively. Although human rights are universal, they are not imposed from outside. An increasingly number of community activists around the world are choosing to use human rights to articulate their demands. There are cultural differences within the west as well. There is as much difference between North American and European approaches to human rights, as there are between Africa and Asia for example.

Question: Is human rights just another fad or fashion within Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?