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Business and Human Rights in a Changing World

Quick, we’re going to do a random (and completely unscientific) experiment. Ready?

Human Rights

What did your mind flash on? Was it the issue of torture? Discrimination? The right to vote?

How many of you thought about the right to justice?

(Looks around at the silent room).

Obviously, I’m not surprised. The right to justice – access to justice when a wrong has occurred or fair representation in the criminal justice system – is often not the first topic of conversation, particularly among privileged Westerners who often presume that they will have access to justice. Now, to be clear, there are many Westerners who do not presume that they will have either access to or equal treatment in our justice system. However, people who fall into that category tend to not look at it within the context of international human rights. Rather, these folks (or at least the ones I talk to) shrug their shoulders or rage against the machine without ever connecting their rage or resignation to internationally protected human rights.

Recently, however, that conversation is shifting. As I mentioned in a previous post (which you can access here), when Justice Walter Echo Hawk came to WVU in February, he spoke about a changing framework for access to justice issues. Speaking specifically about indigenous communities here and abroad, Justice Echo-Hawk noted that, traditionally, the framework we used (and which has greatly affected our jurisprudence) is one of an imperialistic, colonial and paternalistic perspective. Instead, however, Justice Echo-Hawk argues for using a human rights paradigm to examine the right to justice in the indigenous communities.

International organizations are taking note. Last week, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published an article that addressed the topic of justice for indigenous peoples (read about it here). Although the right to justice is a central goal of the UN Declaration on human rights, this goal may still seem distant to many indigenous people, as they are over represented in prison. Oftentimes this comes from a lack of adequate representation, implicit bias at trial and sentencing and more. Further, studies have shown that indigenous individuals are more likely to be victims, have contact with law enforcement, and receive harsher penalties.

Again, this is not a new concept for people of color, but the fact that it’s being framed as a human rights issue can (hopefully) broaden the range of the conversation and the options for change in this area.

But what does this have to do with business and human rights concepts? Actually, quite a bit.

As more scholars in the academy are noting (including two of my favorite people, andre cummings and Matt Titolo who have written about this in articles which you can find here and here, in the U.S. at least, more and more, the prison industrial complex is being run by corporations. Anytime you mix business issues with issues of justice, you have a recipe for “business and human rights” issues. So now, issues that once seemed firmly rooted in the power of the State (access to legal representation, an overrepresented minority population in prisons, the laws that result in ever increasing sentences for inmates) now have a dimension that directly correlates with corporations. As such, businesses can play a role under the Guiding Principles. How that translates on the ground, however, is a whole other story…

prison

Photo taken from http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Prisons (don’t judge).

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