Journal of SouthEast Asian Human Rights
Vol 6 No 2 (2022): December 2022

Disruptions and Corporate Human Rights Responsibility

Winibaldus Stefanus Mere (Nanzan University, Japan)
Otto Gusti Ndegong Madung (Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Dec 2022

Abstract

This article aims to examine the question of how and to what extent business entities can balance the necessities of making business profits and performing social responsibilities in spite of various disruptions encountered in a pandemic. How and to what extent should their social and human rights responsibilities be managed during the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar crisis? The relevance of these questions arises from the fact that while the main purpose of business is to make profits while providing goods, services, jobs, and sources of income to many people, various disruptions arising from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have been posing very serious challenges to business management practices, profitability, and sustainability. These challenges may force businesses to compromise on their social and human rights responsibilities to affected stakeholders for the sake of preserving their commercial responsibilities to their shareholders. This article argues that efforts to ensure effective performance for a balanced approach between commercial responsibilities and human rights responsibilities require a corporate organizational culture that takes human rights risks as seriously as commercial risks. This means there must be an organizational attitude that maintains an unwavering commitment to respect human rights while doing business. In practice, this organizational attitude should be manifested through a clear indicator of its commitment to both “know and “show” human rights responsibilities by way of embedding human rights policy and due diligence procedures into corporate culture. Keywords: Corporate human rights due diligence, disruptions, COVID-19, Pandemic, Business dilemma

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Journal Info

Abbrev

JSEAHR

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Social Sciences

Description

The Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights (JSEAHR) explores human rights realities in South East Asian region from various perspectives. The JSEAHR is a peer-reviewed journal co-organized by the Indonesian Consortium for Human Rights Lecturers (SEPAHAM Indonesia) and the Centre for Human Rights, ...