ABSTRACT
This article aims to contribute to a growing body of interest for the global human rights community: the relationship between human rights and commercial enterprise, by means of an analysis of a newly emerging area of interest: the ongoing attempts to establish respect for human rights in Myanmar.1 Specifically, I will evaluate the potential value and validity of corporate social responsibility (CSR), primarily in the form of adherence to the so-called Ruggie Guiding Principles, in the context of contemporary Myanmar and the restricted though urgent economic and political choices which confront its people. Some within the human rights community will find my specific argument to be controversial if not objectionable. I argue against two effectively absolutist positions: first, that commercial enterprise is inherently incompatible with respecting human rights and that, by
*Email: fagaaw@essex.ac.u
The International Journal of Human Rights, 2015 Vol. 19, No. 6, 867-882, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2015.1019220
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CORPORATE POWER AND HUMAN RIGHTS
extension, the entire CSR phenomenon may be rejected by human rights advocates; second, that pragmatic considerations of the ‘lesser evil’ are similarly incompatible with the ethical foundationalism of human rights thinking. Thus, I offer a contextualist justification of my own contribution to promoting the cause of CSR in Myanmar. I argue that, whilst it is entirely legitimate to acknowledge the devastating impact much commercial enterprise has exerted upon people’s human rights, CSR and more specifically the Guiding Principles offer an opportunity for constructive engagement between the human rights community and the wider business community in Myanmar. More importantly, I argue that the wider evaluation of the human rights potential of the Guiding Principles must be accompanied by a consideration of the specific context within which they are appealed to. Based upon a reasonable, though un-argued, assumption that no domestic economy can effectively develop in isolation from potentially global trading partners, I seek to defend the value of a constructive engagement with the growing numbers of businesses considering investment into Myanmar by appeal to a ‘lesser argument’ position which contrasts such forms of potential investment with the existing precedent set by, for example, Chinese investment which has directly resulted in the widespread abuse of human rights. This article argues for the human rights community endorsing the principle that Myanmar’s path towards respect for human rights should include critically endorsing what many generally reject: that commercial enterprise can be conducted in ways which respect, rather than systematically abuse, human rights. My thesis intentionally seeks to stimulate discussion upon at least three distinct levels of analysis and argument: current developments within Myanmar and their implications for human rights; the relationship between commercial enterprise and human rights; and finally, a more critically normative engagement with how we may justify attempts at defending human rights within a politically and economically complex world.
