Using innovation to promote human rights - the use of human rights indicators for ISO 26000

Human rights are a recurring theme in the international arena since the creation of the United Nations. Many rules, international and local, were established to ensure several mechanisms in the legal, and judicial spheres in... [ view full abstract ]

Human rights are a recurring theme in the international arena since the creation of the United Nations. Many rules, international and local, were established to ensure several mechanisms in the legal, and judicial spheres in addition to public policies. However, recently the assurance of these rights is no exclusive responsibility of States and international public bodies, but also via the private sector as an active and responsible subject. Either economic globalization or the counter-hegemonic globalization of social movements take human rights to the agenda of the companies’ governance around the world. In this sense, the United Nations instruments have been established to regulate companies in the field of human rights, such as: United Nations Global Compact, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Business and Human Rights Forum and UNEP Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. The International Organization for Standardization ISO 26000 established the guidelines for Corporate Social Responsibility, which can be used for businesses of any size and also by the public sector in its activities.
ISO 26000 rules bring an item dedicated to important human rights matters from which indicators for the theme derive. These are quantitative indicators that initially call our attention because they can assist in the evaluation that makes the business activity, as well as of the organs of government. They may be the also useful indicators for the monitoring of social impacts and human rights by the civil society.
This paper analyzes the applicability of ISO 26000 rules for the promotion of human rights through the indicators proposed, as well as discussing its importance in evaluating the social impact of business and government activities. We raised a number of questions, not intending to respond to all of them because of the innovation and complexity of the issue. We intend to show how the ISO 26000 quantitative indicators are used in the field of human rights, including the possible gains for the companies, such as governments incentive. We use state of the art research to analyze normative data and indicators, as well as human rights compliance by the actors already mentioned. We correlate human rights, social responsibility and indicators for monitoring and assessment of initiatives in companies. These are the main issues that we intend to investigate, rather than getting simplistic answers. In sum, indicators are important assessment tools for social impact of corporate businesses and government activities.