One of the benefits of teaching is the opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas and share experiences between the worlds of CSR practice and academia. When it comes to business and human rights, the need for this exchange seems particularly great.

I am teaching a course on business and human rights this summer at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights in New York, and after the first few classes, I am struck by the high degree of skepticism with which most students view companies’ human rights performance.  

Of course, this group is not representative of society at large. But the students, hailing from different countries and diverse backgrounds, are united by a keen interest in understanding the intersection of business and human rights. They could very well represent the next generation of leaders working on this issue in business, the investment community, at NGOs, or in government.  That makes it worthwhile to explore what causes this perception and how companies can change it.

I see two main reasons and courses of action:

1. Human rights are still a weakness for most companies: The most important reason for the poor perception of corporate human rights practices is that, in many cases, it matches the truth. While we have seen much progress from leaders in all sectors, human rights remain a difficult challenge for most companies, and allegations of human rights abuses involving corporations continue to surface and involve more and more sectors. Yet only a relatively small number of companies has adopted human rights policies and carefully assesses and addresses human rights impacts. The course of action for business is clear: Companies should adopt policies and processes that ensure respect for human rights. While not an easy task, the benefits to business of proactive human rights due diligence go far beyond improving perceptions among students in my class. 

2. Corporate communications on human rights are ineffective: CSR reporting and communications, including on human rights, have become more common and effective. Nonetheless, there remains a lack of trust in corporate communications on human rights issues. The reason is likely due to both the information being presented and how it is distributed. Most companies still do not report on human rights explicitly. Too often, disclosure is not balanced or appears misaligned with other parts of the business. And I suspect that the information often does not even reach its intended audience. Truly examining this challenge can’t be done here, but companies can take steps to strengthen their human rights communications by integrating human rights considerations throughout the business to ensure better alignment, proactively and in a balanced way reporting about the challenges faced by the company, and using social media and new technologies to reach a broader audience, including consumers.

The picture is not all bleak. The “Guiding Principles” proposed by UN Special Representative John Ruggie and endorsed by major business organizations provide useful guidance for companies to establish human rights policies and management systems, integrate human rights throughout the business, and communicate on human rights performance. The principles have already galvanized significant action among both governments and businesses to address the complex human rights challenges involving companies.

In my day job leading BSR’s human rights practice, we are working with companies in more and more sectors to establish human rights policies and processes. That makes me hopeful that if I teach this same course a few years from now, students’ perceptions will have changed for the better.