First reflections on the dissemination of the UN guiding principles for business and human rights for the International Cooperative Alliance

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/baidc.2455
Keywords: business, human rights, co-operatives, sustainable development

Abstract

In the face of globalization, increased business competition, transnationalization of production and the multiplication of negative impacts of business activities on human rights, the text of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs) was approved by the UN Human Rights Council. By proposing business performance in line with international documents for the protection of human rights and with the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the GPs are very close to the historical, ethical and doctrinal foundations of the global cooperative movement organized by International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), especially its base document: Statement on Cooperative Identity. Based on the analysis of these two documents covered by United Nations Resolutions, this article presents the first theoretical reflections on how cooperatives and their concern for the community can promote the diffusion of human rights in business activities. In conclusion, the theoretical alignment of the GPs and the Statement on Cooperative Identity seems to expand the ICA’s interpretation of the concept of sustainable development based on a humanist logic, which underlies its integration with the doctrinal premises of the cooperativism.

Received: 25 May 2022
Accepted: 28 October 2022

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Author Biographies

Leonardo Rafael de Souza, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná – PUCPR, Brazil

Doutorando em Direito pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR), Brasil. Pesquisador bolsista no Programa de Mestrado e Doutorado Acadêmico para Inovação (MAI/DAI) do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), no Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações do Brasil. Mestre em Gestão de Cooperativas pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR), Brasil, com extensão em Cooperative Enterprise Law pela University of Helsinki, Finlândia. Integra a Asociación Internacional de Derecho Cooperativo (AIDC) e a IUS Cooperativum Community of Cooperative Lawyers, Luxemburgo.

Danielle Anne Pamplona, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná – PUCPR, Brazil

Pós-doutora pelo Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC (2015-2016). Visiting Scholar no Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg (2019). Doutora pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Mestre pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do São Paulo (PUCSP). Graduada pela Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR). Professora Titular da Graduação em Direito e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito (PPGD) da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR). Coordenadora da Clínica de Direitos Humanos do PPGD/PUCPR. Vice-diretora da Academia Latino-americana de Empresas e Direitos Humanos. 

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Published
2022-12-29
How to Cite
de Souza, Leonardo Rafael, and Danielle Anne Pamplona. 2022. “First Reflections on the Dissemination of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights for the International Cooperative Alliance”. International Association of Cooperative Law Journal, no. 61 (December), 147-65. https://doi.org/10.18543/baidc.2455.
Issue
No. 61 (2022): Concern for community
Section
Articles

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