"Whose job is it to protect human rights?" 3 December 2014

Businesses are being asked to take more and more responsibility for protecting human rights. But should governments really be outsourcing this role to companies? ... [A]s the number of human-rights demands placed on business – and particularly on global companies with supply chains in poor countries – continues to escalate, there’s a risk that governments will be let off the hook. After all, governments are obligated... to protect human rights... One of the difficulties for companies taking on the responsibility of protecting human rights is that the definition of the term “human rights” is infinitely expandable... A second problem is that many businesses don’t have the expertise or the resources to do much about human rights beyond their own corporate walls and supply chains...[O]ne of the most important things companies can do to promote human rights is to become more active in the public-policy arena, by lobbying governments to respect human rights—pushing for press and Internet freedom in China, say, or a higher minimum wage in Vietnam...