Business and Human Rights in Southeast Asia: Risk and the Regulatory Turn

Today, business and human rights has emerged as a distinct field within the broader corporate responsibility movement. The endorsement by the United Nations Human Rights Council of a new set of Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights in 2011 has been welcomed as the leading global standard for corporations to respect human rights. The Guiding Principles are the culmination of a six year UN commissioned study by Harvard University's Professor John Ruggie, which concludes that companies should carry out human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts. The Guiding Principles reinforce the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial.

This book draws on the UN Guiding Principles to provide an overview of developments within the ASEAN region in relation to business and human rights. Bridging theory and practice, chapter authors will discuss the implications of key case-studies undertaken across the region, with a particular focus on extractive industries, migration and infrastructure projects. Topics covered include: due diligence and the role of audits; the role CSR can play in achieving sustainable socio economic development; businesses' responsibilities to migrant workers; and the prevention of human rights abuses in states with weak levels of governance. The book aims to shed light on how ASEAN States currently understand and approach business and human rights challenges, and how the role played by ASEAN States may be strengthened and expanded. In doing so it clearly identifies the key themes, opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the region in relation to business and human rights.