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.

NEW REGULATIONS ON IMPORT AND EXPORT MANAGEMENT RIGHTS GRANTED TO COMMERCIAL AND MATERIAL SUPPLY ENTERPRISES

With the approval of the State Council, State Economicand Trade Commission, Ministry of Foreign Trade and EconomicCooperation and Ministry of Internal Trade recently issued theCircular Regarding Some Relevant Issues in Granting Import andExport Management Rights to Commercial and Material SupplyEnterprises. It means that work ofgranting import and exportmanagement rights has from a trial been led onto the right path ofexamination and approval. The principle of examination and ap-proval, conditions, and the procedure of reporting to a higher in-stitution shall still be in conformity with the relevant regulationsprescribed in Decree No.76 (1993) of the State Council.In November 1993, the State Council approved and trans-mitted Opinions on Experiment of Granting Import and ExportManagement Rights to Some Commercial and Material Enterprisesby State Economic and Trade Commision, Ministry of ForeignTrade and Economic Cooperation and Ministry of Internal Trade.Totaling 206 commercial (including grain and supply and sale)and material supply enterprises are put to trial and granted

Analysis of Human Rights Policies of Chinese-funded Overseas Enterprises

Since China＇s reform and opening-up, Chinese enter- prises investing overseas have increased rapidly,expanding the scale of overseas investment. Ministry of Commerce data from the 2010 statistical bul- letin detailing China＇s foreign direct investment show that as of the end of 2010, more than 13,000 Chinese and foreign-invested enterprises in China have directly invested in more than 16,000 enterprises overseas, with cumulative net foreign direct investment of 317.21 billion U.S. Dollars.