Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 14, 2003

Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting

Business and Human Rights
Analytical Framework for Examining Corporate Approaches to Human Rights

This paper presents an analytical model for examining corporate approaches to human rights. On the basis of an exploratory case study of the activities of Total and Premier Oil in Myanmar, it is argued that companies have three basic strategies to address human rights issues: (1) direct strategies, (2) government strategies, and (3) partnership strategies. It is suggested that the choice between the strategies depends on a number of company and issue characteristics.