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Title: The Corporate Human Rights Impact Assessment: Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Author(s): Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos
Publisher: 2009, George Washington Elliot Sscool of International Affairs
In: International Affairs Review, Volume: XVIII, No. 1: 2009
This article describes how human rights impact assessment (HRIA) can help Western multinational corporations (MNCs) to proactively mitigate or eliminate the negative human rights impacts of their operations in the developing world. It also demonstrates that adopting the practice of an HRIA has the potential to yield economic benefits, and that respecting human rights is not an expensive departure from the core mission of extractive enterprises.
The article starts by noting that Western corporations operating in the developing world have a lamentable record of pursuing economic expediency at the cost of upholding the human rights ideals. It then outlines how these practices are economically costly to MNCs, and examines the body of international voluntary initiatives that has emerged to attempt to standardize MNC operational protocol in the developing world.
The article goes on to propose the outline and implementation of the HRIA which it says pesents MNCs with the opportunity to spread wealth, maintain competitiveness, keep investors, develop new markets, and be responsible global citizens".
It explore how the adoption of HRIA by Western MNCs can be economically beneficial in the medium- and long-term, as an ethical, promising, and cost-effective tool to assess and control the impact of their development activity in places where host governments are unable to safeguard their citizens’ rights.
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