“Inequality is not just an economic issue, but also one of human rights.” -- Philip Alston
The current corporate accountability movement is largely geared toward holding corporations accountable for their negative impacts on human rights, and ensuring that governments regulate or set conditions upon corporate activity in this regard.
Advocates have focused on a range of tactics from naming and shaming, spotlighting, research and advocacy, litigation and engagement to achieve these ends.
Concurrent with the emergence of this field of work, globalization and its ill effects are being increasingly felt, and citizens are acting upon their frustrations. The recent U.S. elections bear witness to the phenomenon of de-globalization that comes with a rise in nationalism and populism. These sentiments not only jeopardize progress on achieving human rights protections, but can thwart it all together.
For the corporate accountability movement to have merit in an increasingly insular set of countries, we must change our language, our tactics, and broaden the ends we seek.
Corporate respect for human rights should be but one of a larger set of issues that draws our attention. While the current focus and tactics utilized by the corporate accountability movement should not be abandoned, the social and economic inequality that lies at the root of populist and nationalist tendencies must also be addressed, and human rights laws and framing have the power to do so.
Our focus thus must shift to three emblematic areas:
Corporate capture
From political appointments to legislative policy, corporate influence is now an accepted part of our democracy. This must change. Citizens must be empowered to act against this ill through knowledge about who is influencing the decisions of their elected officials.
This will require careful examination, tracking, and narrative building around corporate capture and how it corrodes democracy and exacerbates inequality.
Trade agenda
One of the most concrete manifestations of the negative impact of corporate influence is the setting of the trade agenda. For too long trade has focused on the needs of corporations at the expense of people at both ends of the agreements. Creating incentives for investments and fostering a healthy trade regime does not inherently entail the need to trample workers’ rights, destroy livelihoods, and decimate communities.
Addressing this challenge will require spotlighting corporate influence on the trade agenda, and advocating for stronger labor and human rights protections in trade agreements that reinforce the rights of citizens and not corporations.
Living Wage
Perhaps the most critical issue affecting social and economic inequality is the insufficient wages paid to workers. While corporations may benefit from seeking markets where they can minimize costs and evade liability, workers bear the consequences. When wages are set below rates that enable the realization of basic human rights, including adequate housing, food, and water, human rights cannot flourish.
To tackle this challenge, we need to establish the right to receive a living wage as a fundamental right to be realized, protected by governments, and respected by corporations.
These three areas of work are critical to addressing the challenges posed by social and economic inequality.
To truly ensure human rights, including labor rights, are protected and respected, we need to tackle fundamental inequality at home and abroad. The drivers of inequality must be addressed, and the doctrines of human rights must be used to address them.
This critical work will not be easy. Part of this challenge will be educating the public around human rights terminology. Another part will be convincing them that human rights are rights that they themselves can claim in order to tackle the inequality that they see impacting their lives.
If the corporate accountability movement does not move in this direction - if we refuse to expand our work and use human rights language, tools, and methodologies to address these increasingly salient issues – we will be fighting a losing battle for the promotion and protection of human rights, both at home and abroad.
This is our opportunity.