ABSTRACT
Non-governmental organisations (NGO) entering partnerships aim to reward good business practice with an endorsement or active co-operation. They encourage the idea of the consumer’s ‘market vote’ that influences the corporate world to be more socially and environmentally responsible. In some instances, NGOs and companies may get together on product collaboration or to establish informal codes of conduct or stewardship regimes. Founded in the UK in 1961, Amnesty International is the world’s largest membership-based human rights organisation with over a million members in over a hundred countries. AI has a governance structure elected by its members and a number of paid professional staff implementing the organisation’s democratically decided policy. There were many discussions between The Body Shop’s human rights campaigner, people within The Body Shop and those working for Amnesty about who gained the greatest reputational benefit from the partnership. Business–NGO campaigning partnerships and solo corporate campaigns have not received much analytical attention, by the corporate world or within academia.
