Towards a Business, Human Rights and the Environment Framework

Abstract

The relationship between human rights and the environment has been on the international policy and scholarly agendas for over two decades. Equally, the dynamics between business activities and corporations’ working methods and their impact on human rights have been developing at the policy and legal levels. However, within these developments there has been limited consideration of the environment in the context of adverse corporate impacts and their human dimensions, which have been approached in an ad-hoc and piecemeal manner. This Special Issue exposes the advances and deficiencies in the theoretical and practical integration of human rights and the environment within the business and human rights framework, as well as the role and impact of greater integration for achieving positive social and environmental change. In this editorial to the special issue of Sustainability on Business, Human Rights, and the Environment, we set the stage to push forward the development of an integrated and coherent theoretic Business, Human Rights, and Environment framework and its international legal implementation which places the needs of the people and the planet at its core.

An integrated approach to corporate due diligence from a human rights, environmental, and TWAIL perspective

“…Human rights and the environment are inextricably linked and interdependent: a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a crucial precondition for the full enjoyment of all human rights and human rights are also tools through which environmental issues can be addressed (UNHRCt, 2019, para 62; UNHRC, 2011, paras 7–8, 15–22, 2012, paras 25–33). There are clear synergies between states' obligations under both regimes, which could inform an assessment of the effectiveness of current mHREDD laws and the development of future mHREDD frameworks (Martin‐Ortega et al, 2022, pp. 2–7).…”

“…158–159; Morgera, 2020, p. 126). The result, as we have argued elsewhere, is 10 years of development of policy and practice of corporate responsibility and accountability in which environmental concerns have been considered in an “ad‐hoc and piecemeal manner, as an “add‐on” to existing frameworks and mechanisms that have since evolved, thus continuing to perpetuate the division between human rights and the environment, and a lack of clarity as to how such a relationship could be operationalized” (Martin‐Ortega et al, 2022, p. 17).…”

“…What form could and should accountability and remedy take to address natural entities' impacted rights? While beyond the scope of this article, such an approach could have significant implications for business, human rights, and the environment, and consequently provide an alternative means of envisioning respect, accountability, and remedy to address corporate‐related human rights and environmental harms (Martin‐Ortega et al, 2022, pp. 4, 17–20).…”

“…International human rights law and international environmental law have developed in isolation from each other in a way which does not necessarily facilitate the fulfillment of these obvious synergies, resulting in principles, obligations, and rights that exist and are often operationalized in opposition with one another (Turner, 2021, pp. 4–5; Martin‐Ortega et al, 2022, p. 3). This is evident even in the growing consolidation of a corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the environment (Morgera, 2020).…”

“…Most notably, the UN Human Rights Council's and General Assembly's landmark Resolutions which recognized the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (UNGA, 2022; UNHRC, 2021). We are also witnessing increasing efforts toward the integration of environmental issues in the business and human rights field, accompanied by calls for the development of a comprehensive framework which accommodates both (Bright & Buhmann, 2021; Macchi, 2022; Martin‐Ortega et al, 2022; Morgera, 2020; Schilling‐Vacaflor, 2021; Seck, 2018; Turner, 2021).…”