Learn in the textbookCorporate Ethics and Codes of Organizational Conduct
DefinitionBusiness and human rights (ビジネスと人権) is the idea that a company is responsible for respecting human rights and preventing harm to them across all of its business activities, including those involving its business partners, not just within its own walls.
ExplanationIn 2011 the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, making the corporate responsibility to respect human rights an international baseline. The Japanese government adopted a national action plan in 2020 (revised in 2025) and published guidelines for companies in 2022. The core practice is human rights due diligence (人権デューディリジェンス): an ongoing cycle of identifying and preventing adverse impacts, checking the results and explaining them externally.
AnalogyIt is like a restaurant that cares not only about its own staff but also about whether the farmers growing its ingredients are being overworked. It looks past the plate to the people behind it.
Memory hookThe Guiding Principles are also called the Ruggie Principles, after John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative who drew them up.