University of Hamburg Summer Semester 2014

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights-Introduction, practical relevance and critical analysis

Xiaoxiao Ding Master in International Business and Sustainability

ABSTRACT: due to the increasingly significant influence of the transnational corporations in industrial and commercial fields in modern society, especially in the spheres of environment and labor protection, more and more cases raised involving their infringements of the international human rights laws. On June 16, 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, providing guidance for the implementation of the United Nations " Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework. In the form of " Soft Law", these principles specify what business enterprises should do to respect human rights and how to prevent the violations on human rights. This paper identifies the main idea of these principles, gives relevant practical references and analyzes these principles with a critical perspective.

Contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................. 2 2. The development and content of UN Guiding Principles......... 3
2.1 Historical development of UN Guiding Principles ........................ 3 2.2 The main idea of the UN Guiding Principles ................................. 4 2.3 The legal framework of the UN Guiding Principles ...................... 5

3. Practical relevance of the UN Guiding Principles .................... 6
3.1 A negative case of Foxcoon............................................................ 7 3.2 A postive case of the Hitachi Group............................................... 8

4. Critical analysis of the UN Guiding Principles ........................ 9
4.1 UN Guiding Principles addressing states