Problems that Companies Have Faced Regarding Corruption and Human Rights Issues: Why There is Little Information on How They Were Dealt With

Abstract

There is a consensus among the professionals in the area of business and human rights that there is a serious scarcity of information on how companies have dealt with issues that have arisen; this is particularly unfortunate as it results in a lack of good case studies to model best practices. Because of this, I have conducted research into why there is such a scarcity of information, by talking to numerous lawyers and companies on why this is the case.

The result of my inquiries was that little information on these types of issues primarily exists because companies do not want to draw attention to the types of issues that we are discussing as it rarely does them any good and often harms them. This article sets out some of the reasons for this issue, and examples of the problems. It concludes with reference to the National Contact Point and the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) program their recognition of the need for guarding much of the information that they may receive through complaints about Canadian companies allegedly engaged in human rights abuses abroad, for the reasons outlined in the article.

Keywords: Business and Human Rights, Supply chains, National Contact Point, Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise

JEL Classification: K2, K20, K33, K4, M1, M16, M48, F02, F2, F23