David Weissbrodt (assisted by Christopher Avery and Muria Kruger) explains the rationale - In August 1999 the UN Working Group on the Methods and Activities of Transnational Corporations asked Professor David Weissbrodt to prepare a set of human rights guidelines for companies...The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls on ‘every individual and every organ of society’ to promote and respect human rights. Professor Louis Henkin of Columbia University, a leading international law scholar, noted that ‘every individual and every organ of society excludes no one, no company, no market, no cyberspace. The Universal Declaration applies to them all.’