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Rights in a state of exception. The deadly colonial ethics of voluntary corporate responsibility for human rights

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Version 2 2023-06-12, 07:26
Version 1 2023-06-09, 15:07
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 07:26 authored by Lara Montesinos ColemanLara Montesinos Coleman
It is widely accepted that voluntary corporate responsibility for human rights is a means of continuing “business-as-usual”. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been denounced as “whitewash”, with little effect in practice. I claim here that voluntary CSR is far worse than “whitewash”: it actively bolsters corporate impunity by rendering the violence of development illegible and equating resistance with irrationality or subversion. It thrives upon the state of exception that provides the permissive context of human rights violations. I make this argument by returning to the birthplace of corporate responsibility for human rights: BP’s Colombian oilfields, combining ethnographic research with trenchant critique of the colonial myths informing mainstream discussion of business and human rights. The UN has responded to the potential of voluntary CSR to detract from abuses by emphasising the importance of judicial remedy. What the analysis here reveals is how voluntary measures and provision for judicial remedy may work in opposite directions.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Oñati Socio-Legal Series

ISSN

2079-5971

Publisher

OSLS

Issue

6

Volume

8

Page range

874-900

Department affiliated with

  • International Development Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-09-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-09-18

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-09-17

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