Practical Effects and Theoretical Significance of Enterprises’Human Rights Policies——Taking Fortune Global 500 as an Example

The United nations guiding Principles on Business and human Rights requires enterprises to formulate human Rights policies and specify criteria for content and form to fulfill their responsibilities in this area.Research into the human rights policies enacted by the Fortune global 500 enterprises in 2021 reveals aclearl trend and the great practical and theoretical significance of enterprises’human rights policies can be identified.In practice,the widespread application of international human rights norms to enterprises’human rights policies is becoming a universal corporate practice that incorporates both formulation and implementation mechanisms,but there are distinct differences in the application of international human rights norms by enterprises from different countries and industries.Meanwhile,the trend in applying these enterprises’human rights policies reveals a key theoretical significance,i.e.,the trend toward the privatization of human rights norms is breaking away from the theoretical basis of“public law”in the traditional international human rights law.The social norms,including international guidelines and industry norms,are being transformed into“hard law”;and the effect of domestic legislation on enterprises’responsibilities in human rights in other countries transcends national borders and suggests new theoretical possibilities for the extraterritorial extension of a country’s legal will.While enterprises’human rights policies may have become customary rules for international business,there are still many limitations and challenges to their application,which may also pose limitations to their practical effects and theoretical significance.Recommendations are made in the hope that the Chinese government and enterprises will pay attention to the significance of enterprises’human rights policies and improve their understanding and application of the policies to promote global human rights governance in a more equitable,just,reasonable,and inclusive direction.

Comparative Analysis and Legal Reflection on the Boundaries of Human Rights Due Diligence in the Supply Chain

As global supply chains become increasingly lengthy and complex, human rights due diligence in the supply chain is becoming a controversial focal point in the accountability of multinational corporations. In recent years, legislative practices in the field of human rights due diligence have shown a trend from voluntary soft law toward mandatory hard law, and from corporate due diligence for their own operations towards extended due diligence for the entire supply chain. However, there is a divergence in national practices regarding the extent to which human rights due diligence should extend along the supply chain and the manner in which it should be incorporated into domestic legal policies. International soft law interpretations surrounding the boundaries of human rights due diligence in the supply chain are decentralized, posing risks of interpretation diversification, boundary blurring, and procedural formalization, as well as risks of misinterpretation and misuse. Meanwhile, some countries and regions are vigorously promoting mandatory legislation on human rights due diligence in the supply chain, which has profound implications for the stability of global supply chains and the international economic and trade order. Against this backdrop, it is crucial to explore the reasonable boundaries of human rights due diligence in the supply chain. Instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach,the rationality of legal factors and the complexity of practical factors should be considered, applying context-specific measures based on the varying degrees of linkage between companies and negative human rights impacts in the supply chain. China should be particularly wary of the “chilling effect” of mandatory legislation on human rights due diligence in the supply chain, attaching great importance to national supply chain security and international supply chain competitiveness.Additionally,China should actively promote the implementation of voluntary human rights due diligence under the United Nations framework, and accelerate the enhancement of China's discourse power in the international rule-making process in the fields of industry and commerce as well as human rights.