Transnational Enterprises - Article Example

The norms drafted by the UN were said to be a pioneering measure to ascertain the provision of basic human rights in a business set up on an international level. Even though it was accepted by the United Nation’s Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, its parent body, the human rights commission UN failed to accept it. According to the author, this norm had several loopholes that could have resulted in this case. Firstly, the norms included all other business enterprises and not just transnational.

With 77000 transnational firms all over the world, globalization encourages them to spread its operations and supply chain all over the world. However, every country has a different and completely new system of socio-political environment and a set of laws. The issue debates whether an international law binding is enough for the subsidiaries operating in different countries as a lapse on the subsidiary’s part may hold the parent company responsible. In the general obligations section of the draft norms, the human rights laws are proposed in detail incorporating aspects like discrimination, security, even debated areas like environmental rights and indigenous community’s rights.

However, it failed to propose the scope of the spheres of influence under which these need to be practiced. Neither did it mention the primary and secondary nature of the state and corporate duties respectively. The author took into account these pitfalls of the draft norms and proposed in his mandate measures that incorporated existing international corporations, their practices in order to decrease the gap between human rights and corporate activities internationally. The proposed strategies by the author strengthen the draft norms by correcting the existing pitfalls.

Firstly, making corporations accountable through international law even if domestic governments cannot take action will help eradicate the chances of corporate violations in terms of human rights in the home and host countries. Hybrid law arrangements that propose voluntary and mandatory human rights measures can help build an air of shared responsibility in a global setup. Lastly, recognition of human rights and influencing corporate behavior in this regard can be accompanied by moral rationales like punishments and incentives so that this becomes an embedded aspect of every organization’s operations.

he changing the scope of globalization calls for an effective system that ensures provisions of human rights in every center of the businesses operations. The proposed mandate offers solutions to the draft norms of the UN and suggests remedies to make it effective in action and acceptable by its parent company as well.