Introduction
The phrase “human rights” commonly refers to the rights that all human beings have simply in virtue of being human (Griffin 2008). The idea is rooted in the notion of “natural rights,” which in turn is grounded in the belief that ethics is immanent and, at least to an extent, objective and universal in nature. This belief has been characteristic of several religious and spiritual traditions since ancient times (e.g., God-given rights in Abrahamic religions, laws of Nature in Stoicism). For the better part of the human history, however, natural rights were understood as being unequally distributed among people, as is exemplified by the plethora of kings throughout history who inherited the crown by reference to their divine right to rule. The Enlightenment period secularized the notion of natural rights and conceptualized the idea of human rights that every human being is entitled to...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Birchall D (2019) Any act, any harm, to anyone: the transformative potential of ‘human rights impacts’ under the UN guiding principles on business and human rights. U OxHRH J 1(2):120
Brenkert GG (2016) Business ethics and human rights: an overview. Bus Hum Rights J 1:277–306
Deva S, Ramasastry A, Wettstein F, Santoro M (2019) Editorial: business and human rights scholarship: past trends and future directions. Bus Hum Rights J 4:201–212
Griffin J (2008) On human rights. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Hsieh N-h (2017) Business responsibilities for human rights: a commentary on Arnold. Bus Hum Rights J 2:297–309
Melé D, Sánchez-Runde C (2013) Cultural diversity and universal ethics in a global world. J Bus Ethics 116:681–687
Ruggie JG (2007) Addendum on human rights policies and management practices: results from questionnaire surveys of governments and the fortune global 500 firms. Report of the special representative of the secretary-general on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, U.N. Document A/HRC/4/35/Add.3, 28 February 2007
Shadnam, M. (in press). Problematic presuppositions in corporate philanthropy research: reflexivity and reframing. Forthcoming in Organization
Shadnam M, Bykov A, Prasad A (2021) Opening constructive dialogues between business ethics research and the sociology of morality. J Bus Ethics 170:201–211
Vadlamannati KC, Janz N, Soysa I (2020) U.S. multinationals and human rights: a theoretical and empirical assessment of extractive versus nonextractive sectors. Bus Soc. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0007650320928972
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Birchall, D., Shadnam, M. (2021). Human Rights and Business Ethics. In: Poff, D.C., Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_1293-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_1293-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences