The course aims at recognizing and understanding the existence and growing strength of an international norm on Business and Human Rights (BHR), especially considering the special role of European Union in both legitimizing and reconceiving such a norm beyond the United Nations (UN) level. The discipline mobilize innovative tools in order to guarantee the full understanding of how a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was established and could be disseminated to a strategic area, such as Latin America, and to a strategic partner, such as Brazil, setting interesting parameters of comparison.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• To identify mechanisms through which private actors have been converted into duty bearers under international law;
• To consider ways through which international institutions, globally and regionally, expanded their functional mandates in order to include CSR and BHR norms, especially targeting European Union;
• To identify the trajectories of CSR and BHR norms by localizing international actors and platforms of norms’ entrepreneurship;
• To put an emphasis on European Union soft and hard laws regarding the issues of CSR and BHR;

ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Participation: 40% of NI2
Case Studies: 60% of NI2

Official Exams:

• an oral presentation (using prezi or ppt) of NI1
• an ending evaluation as PO

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF CLASS SCHEDULE: 

Preliminary Presentation of the program

• Business Private Actors and their responsibilities under International Law?;

• The multilateral emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility;

• OECD and ILO and their role in shaping Corporate Social Responsibility;

• The United Nations as a Corporate Social Responsibility norm entrepreneur;

• The United Nations Global Compact and its cascading effect;

• The United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP): a permanent nexus business-human rights?;

• The European Union Strategy on Corporate Social Responsibility and its characteristics;

• The European governance model: a multi-stakeholder perspective and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) centrality;
• Mainstreaming business and human rights in CSR European Framework: what does it mean?;

• Business and Human Rights norm diffusion: Latin America and Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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Bull, B., Bøås, M., & McNeill, D. (2004). Private sector influence in the multilateral system: A changing structure of world governance? Global Governance, 10, 481-498.

Crane, A., McWilliams, A., Matten, D., Moon, J., & Siegel, D. S. (Eds.). (2008). The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Commission Staff Working Document: on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 2015.

. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS: A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility. 2011.

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EUROPEAN COUNCIL. Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy (2015-2019): keeping human rights at the heart of the European Agenda. https://ec.europa.eu/anti-trafficking/sites/antitrafficking/files/action- plan-on-human-rights-and-democracy-2015-2019_en.pdf.

Grosser, K., & Moon, J. (2005). Gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility: Reporting workplace issues. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(4), 327-340.

Grugel, J., & Piper, N. (2007). Critical perspectives on global governance. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kilgour, M. A. (2007). The UN global compact and substantive equality for women: Revealing a well-hidden mandate. Third World Quarterly, 28(4), 751-773.

Newell, P. (2005). Citizenship, accountability and community: The limits of the CSR agenda. International Affairs, 81(3), 541-557.

OHCHR. Business and Human Rights. Disponível em: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/BusinessIndex.aspx. Last access on 10th June, 2018.

Ruggie, J. G. (2001). Global governance.net: The Global Compact as learning network. Global Governance, 7(4), 371-378.

UN Global Compact & Maplecroft. (2010). Human rights and business dilemmas forum. Retrieved from http://human-rights.unglobalcompact.org/about.

UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT. Principles for Responsible Management Education. Online. Available at: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/action/management-education.