A. Introduction: Setting the Stage

The United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights unanimously approved the "Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to Human Rights" (the Norms) on 13 August 2003. Together with the interpretative Commentary, the Norms constitute an authoritative guide to corporate social responsibility. They are the first set of comprehensive international human rights norms specifically aimed at and applying to transnational corporations and other business entities (companies). They set out the responsibilities of companies with regard to human rights and labor rights, and provide guidelines for companies in conflict zones. They prohibit bribery and provide obligations with regard to consumer protection and the environment. General provisions of implementation include the obligation to provide reparation for a failure to comply with the Norms.

The Norms represent a further significant step by the international community to involve companies in international standard setting. One of their predecessors inside the United Nations (UN) was the UN Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations, which was never fully adopted and which was stymied both by the North-South conflict and the Cold War. The project proved too ambitious in trying to set up an overarching regulation of the activities of transnational corporations and their relationships with host governments. A more recent attempt to bring world business in line with international human rights, labor rights and environmental concerns was the Global Compact, an initiative of Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. This initiative has been entirely voluntary and is thus often criticized as deficient. The far more detailed Norms, which are intended to evolve into a binding instrument, are seen as complementary to the Global Compact, as acknowledged by the Global Compact Office. Outside the UN, a plethora of divergent approaches to create and enforce corporate social responsibility has emerged in the last decades and especially...