ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the context in which companies came face to face with human rights, the incentives to recognise their responsibilities and the response of the main actors involved. The corporate world has an inescapable impact on human rights and therefore a responsibility for them. Workplace and supply chain issues such as labour conditions, the health and safety of employees and the right to organise are all human rights issues for which companies have direct responsibility. Many countries, with governments lacking any democratic legitimacy, provided a context of corruption, injustice, internal conflict and human rights violations. The Internet provided an immediate means of communicating corporate involvement in human rights violations or practices in conflict with company codes. The main incentives for companies to change and accept their wider responsibilities for the protection and promotion of human rights have so far been reputational damage and external pressure from non-governmental organisations and public opinion.
