Collaborative Models of Shared Responsibility for Human Rights: From Issues to Solutions

The project seeks to provide orientation for corporations in dealing with human rights challenges. It is based on three project modules. The first module comprises a mapping of human rights issues (notably social and economic rights), distinguishing them according to their relative maturity (e.g., «hot issues», «emerging issues», and «slumbering issues»). The second module aims at providing guidance for corporations particularly regarding how to successfully deal with such social and economic human rights issues which are yet fairly elusive and thus lack an established practice but which have a high chance of influencing the CSR debate in the future (read «slumbering issues»). To this end, a collaborative, cross-sector model for shared public and political responsibility will be outlined. In the third and final module, the model for shared public and political responsibility will be applied and refined in the context of approximately three case studies. Taken together, the present project helps corporations to better understand and deal with emerging social and economic human rights issues.