Human Rights and Assigned Duties: Implications for Corporations

Human rights imply duties. The question is, duties for whom? Without a well-defined scheme for assigning duties correlative to human rights, these rights remain illusory. This paper develops core elements of a general scheme of duty assignment and studies the implications for corporations. A key distinction in such an assignment is between unconditional and conditional duties. Unconditional duties apply to every agent regardless of the conduct of others. Conditional duties reflect a division of moral labour where different tasks are assigned to specific agents, whose default activates back-up duties of other agents. Corporations face unconditional duties to not directly violate the rights of others, and not undermine the division of moral labour through practices such as tax evasion or corruption. Being unconditional, these duties cannot be deviated from by reference to the misconduct of competitors. In addition, corporate conditional duties to protect, promote or fulfil rights can be activated if the state and other designated duty-bearers fail to discharge their duties.     

Transnational Human Rights Networks

'Transnational human rights networks' has become a hot research topic for international human rights studies in recent years. It mainly documents and theorizes the transnationalization or internationalization of human rights norms and practices during the last several decades. It began as a distinctive field of research scholarship and has grown to challenge the traditional approaches to international studies. This review introduces the major tenets of this field and, without downplaying their contribution to international studies, it also tries to point out several problems in the conceptualization, theorization and methodology of the current studies on human rights networks. This critical analysis is followed by some suggestions for future studies.     

Outsiders Inside and Insiders Outside: Linking Transnational and Domestic Public Action for Human Rights

Human Rights Review - “Is the traditional divide between domestic and international politics breaking down?” and, if so, with what effects on transnational human rights activism? This...     

Norm Proxy War and Resistance Through Outsourcing: The Dynamics of Transnational Human Rights Contestation

A great deal of constructivist international relations research on norms focuses on the diffusion of liberal human rights values. In contrast, this article analyzes how critics seek to undermine human rights principles in contexts where human rights norms are increasingly hegemonic. It argues that when norm challengers are frustrated by the institutionalization of human rights, they engage in transnational strategies to pursue their agendas. In norm proxy war, actors patronize surrogates in locales where norms are weak in the hope that victories abroad will reverberate internationally and at home. This dynamic is illustrated by American evangelical sponsorship of political homophobia in Uganda, culminating in that country’s draconian anti-LGBT legislation. When norms are resisted through outsourcing, actors contract out human rights violations in an effort to erode norms through practice, as evidenced by patterns of extraterritorial detention and extraordinary rendition to torture in the post-9/11 “Global War on Terror.” Identifying these patterns broadens understanding of potential pathways of norm contestation.     

在华跨国公司管理本土化及其影响分析

在人员配备方面,跨国公司海外经营的扩张主要依赖于母国外派人员,他们在跨国公司国外子公司中占据着重要管理岗位.随着跨国公司全球经营的成熟以及外部环境的变化,跨国公司管理本土化的趋势日益明显.伴随跨国公司在华直接投资的发展,这些跨国公司在华的管理本土化进程也日益加快,表现为在关键管理岗位上,愈来愈重视培训和开发中国本土管理人员并使之逐步替代母国外派管理人员.跨国公司的管理人员本土化对我国的人力资源开发、配置与人才竞争都带来了重要的影响.本文在分析跨国公司管理本土化的全球趋势与特征的基础上,重点考察在华跨国公司管理本土化的发展过程及其背后的推动因素,分析在华跨国公司管理本土化对我国的影响.     

Civil Rights and Political Human Rights: Contesting Human Rights Failures within the Minimally Democratic State

Allen Buchanan argues that democracy ought to be added to the list of basic human rights, but he limits the conception of democracy to a minimum of electoral representation within the nation state, effectively collapsing human rights into civil rights. This, however, leaves him unable to address the problem of human rights failures occurring within established states that meet his standard of minimal democratic representation. In order to address this problem, I appeal to James Bohman's conception of the political human rights of all members of humanity, as opposed to the civil rights of the citizens of particular states. I argue that while this provides the basis on which to address the problem of human rights failures within minimally democratic states, Bohman's conception also entails the potential for deep tensions to arise between the different claims of civil and human rights.     

Human Rights Reporting: Rights,Responsibilities, and Challenges

This essay critically examines the intersections between news media and human rights in the context of the existing human rights framework. A survey of the fundamental provisions of international human rights law and of the evolving case law of human rights organs relating to media freedom and responsibilities reveals that existing gaps and underspecified obligations render problematic the normative guidance offered by the framework in addressing the pertinent human rights issues. However, this is part of the story. The problems associated with normative guidance are compounded by media practitioners’ contending approaches on the role of the media as “promoters of human rights.” The interplay between these factors is then examined through the prism of the two communities’ converging commitment to “truth-seeking.” This commitment can provide entry points to a more constructive engagement between the news media and the human rights community.     

The Globalization of Rights: From Citizenship to Human Rights

Globalization is shifting the balance away from membership-based citizenship towards universal human rights, thus we ask: how are new human rights generated? We argue that the movement for human rights follows on the heels of the much older and richer tradition of citizenship, as can be seen from the fact that many of the new claims put forward by human rights activists seek to define traditional citizenship rights as universal human rights. Most recently, we witness attempts by NGOs and CSOs to bring health, rights-based development, and identity rights under the umbrella of human rights. We examine the changing but continuous relationship of these two rights traditions, the gains made by human rights activists and the global solidarity and national enforcement capacity needed to underwrite their further progress.     

Human Rights and Modern Liberalism: a Critique

The idea of human rights has become one of the central moral notions of both the theory and practice of international politics. While its foundation and future in the practice of politics looks bright, it is an idea that still causes great trouble at the theoretical level. What are human rights? Why do we have them? To what should we attribute the authority of their moral claims? The theorist Michael Freeman has suggested one theory that by addressing such questions may serve as a foundation for human rights. His theory, however, ends by begging the questions it set out to answer.     

Rethinking Human Rights in York as a Human Rights City

Human rights is in crisis in the UK. It lacks significant political backing and public support. This ‘insider account’ of York becoming a human rights city suggests that there is a need to rethink approaches to human rights. The article looks at the strategies adopted in the city; the annual city‐based indicator report which provides the key reference point for all local activities; and the declaration of York as a ‘human rights city’ in 2017 alongside its subsequent impact. The discussion is linked to two debates within human rights: how to define and build a culture of human rights, and what it means for human rights to be truly relevant at a local level. The new approach advocated can be summarised as participatory, locally informed, and related to everyday concerns.     

跨国公司战略联盟发展新趋势及其启示

跨国公司战略联盟新的发展趋势 ,主要是组建强强合作的以技术创新为目的的战略联盟 ,其发展动因主要在于应对科技飞速发展、经济全球化和激烈的市场竞争以及企业组织变革的需要。战略联盟对企业发展具有重要的战略意义 ,我国企业应积极参与和组建战略联盟 ,以迅速提高技术创新能力和国际竞争力。     

Implementing International Human Rights Law at Home: Domestic Politics and the European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) boasts one of the strongest oversight systems in international human rights law, but implementing the ECtHR??s rulings is an inherently domestic and political process. This article begins to bridge the gap between the Court in Strasbourg and the domestic process of implementing the Court??s rulings by looking at the domestic institutions and politics that surround the execution of the ECtHR??s judgments. Using case studies from the UK and Russia, this article identifies two factors that are critical for the domestic implementation of the Court??s rulings: strong domestic, democratic institutions dedicated to implementing the ECtHR??s judgments and an overarching sense of responsibility to set a good example at home and abroad for respecting human rights and the rule of law. This article concludes with a discussion of the steps necessary to facilitate better implementation of the ECtHR??s rulings.     

Human Rights Abuses in Bangladeshi Policing: the Protection Capacity of National Human Rights Commission

This paper is about human rights and policing in Bangladesh, with special focus on the role of National Human Rights Commission. The protection and promotion of human rights in Bangladesh has become difficult as the law enforcement agencies, particularly the police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), are involved in human rights violations. An overall culture of impunity for human rights violations exists in Bangladesh. The National Human Rights Commission appears to have failed to break the culture of impunity in Bangladeshi politics. This paper explains the reasons why the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh largely fails to make the political system in particular law enforcement agencies accountable.