Karp - Fixing Meanings - Author-accepted version.pdf (761.21 kB)
Fixing meanings in global governance? "Respect" and "Protect" in the UN guiding principles on business and human rights
This article uses snapshots, rather than the ongoing flows of diffusion/contestation typically emphasized by constructivists, to explore the exercise of power through normative change. Its case is a high-profile Human Rights Council initiative: the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP?s). These UNGP?s have successfully presented meanings as fixed while actually stretching those meanings’ boundaries. They reconceptualize what it means to “respect” and “protect” human rights. This is surprising given that the principles were framed as a conservative exercise at clarification, and under-noticed due to the legal rather than conceptual focus of the existing critical literature. To respect human rights, according to the UNGP?s, agents need to take costly positive action. Furthermore, protect obligations come before respect. These are significant innovations. On the other hand, two missed opportunities of the UNGP?s are their thin harm-based foundation for respect obligations, and their state centrism about who has duties to protect.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International OrganizationsISSN
1942-6720Publisher
BrillExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
26Page range
628-649Department affiliated with
- International Relations Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Centre for Advanced International Theory Publications
- Sussex Rights and Justice Research Centre Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-07-23First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-11-16First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-07-22Usage metrics
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