Aligning Business Efforts to Combat Corruption and Respect Human Rights

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which corruption and business and human rights can be brought together, with a particular emphasis on the management of these issues by business. The last twenty years have seen significant developments in both the fight against corruption in international business and in the field of business and human rights. Due to development of a global anticorruption norm, and the widespread acknowledgement that corporations have a responsibility to respect human rights under the UNGPs, corporations now have obligations in both areas that exist wherever they operate across the globe. These efforts can be enhanced by recognising the linkages between these two areas and having businesses coordinate the governance and implementation of these efforts. This paper discusses the ways businesses can connect combatting corruption with respecting human rights and the benefits in doing so. It also includes a discussion of the role of the state in the effort to bring corruption and business and human rights together.

Keywords: Corruption, Bribery, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights, Compliance