BSR Insight | Should I Stay or Should I Go: Business and High-Risk Markets
About the Author(s)
Dunstan Allison Hope, Managing Director, Advisory Services
Publication Date
July 24, 2012
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"Business can most effectively respect human rights through our presence in, rather than absence from, countries that present significant human rights risks. … [T]he critical question facing business is 'how' to operate within repressive countries to enable people living there to benefit from ICT products the way people do in other, freer countries."
--Microsoft Global Human Rights Statement, April 2012
Two apparently unrelated developments are happening concurrently: Information and communications technology (ICT) is playing an increasingly significant role in today's world, while new Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have crystallized business' responsibility to respect human rights.
This combination has inspired many ICT companies to review their approach to human rights. Microsoft's recent human rights statement notes that while a company may in some cases decide it is better to leave a country in response to difficult circumstances, Microsoft generally believes that engaging in these difficult environments often holds the greatest promise of promoting human rights in the medium and long term.
About the Author(s)
Dunstan Allison Hope, Managing Director, Advisory Services
Dunstan works with a diverse range of companies—including those in the information and communications technology (ICT), consumer products, and heavy manufacturing sectors—on corporate responsibility issues such as human rights, reporting, sustainability strategy, and stakeholder engagement... Read more →
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