Business and Human Rights Practice as a Blueprint for Aligning Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability

Szablewska, Natalia (2024). Business and Human Rights Practice as a Blueprint for Aligning Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability. In: The 2024 BR2R (Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association) Annual Conference, 12-13 Sep 2024, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

URL: https://bhrscholarsassociation.org/2023-conference...

Abstract

The field of Business and Human Rights, both its theoretical basis and practice, continues to be contentious despite increasing recognition of business responsibilities towards human rights in contemporary human rights discourse and beyond (e.g., Bernaz, 2016; Birchall, 2021; Szablewska, 2022). The most recent focus has been on developing and regulating corporate responsibility and accountability to account for business impacts on human rights, which has been seen as bringing varied success (e.g., Ford and Nolan, 2020; Tamvada, 2020). Human rights, including in the context of business activities, are considered to be key to the attainment of sustainable development, and businesses play a pivotal role in realising human rights and sustainability agenda (Business and Sustainable Development Commission, 2016; Zegelmayer, 2024). Given that the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development is going to be missed by decades failing to achieve any of its 17 goals and many of its 169 targets (UN DESA, 2023; Sachs et al., 2023), it necessitates novel approaches to realising a sustainable future. Building on these developments, this paper puts forward a proposition that the practice of business and human rights can be beneficial in understanding the wider sustainability framework and how the three dimensions of sustainable development, i.e., economic, environmental and social, can be better aligned through law and non-legal mechanisms for behaviour change. This research is informed but the author’s interdisciplinary research in this area along with high-level advocacy and government advisory experience.

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