Introduction: Human Rights, Corporate Complicity and Disinvestment

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, questions of corporate conduct in relation to human rights have come to the forefront of public attention. Several institutional investors such as pension funds, especially responsible private funds and government funds have established policies and practices to handle issues of corporate involvement which they find unethical.

The discussions of the book lie at the intersection of three important current developments relating to normative frameworks: first, the corporate social responsibility (CSR ) discussion which addresses companies directly rather than the investors’ perspective; second, the ethical, or responsible, investment development; and third, discussions on norms for sovereign wealth funds that are investors of a special breed. It is against this normative background that this book analyses the relationships between investment, companies’ conduct and human rights.

Concepts of complicity in human rights violations are at the core of this book. They are discussed from several philosophical as well as several legal perspectives. The underlying discussion is how to establish norms for assessing corporate conduct and investors’ relationships to such conduct, and how to apply them?