Special track

Special Track Proposal

Ethics and New Beginnings for Human Rights Responsibilities of Businesses in Troubled Times

Conveners:

Professor Karin Buhmann, Copenhagen Business School

Professor Carmen Márquez Carrasco, University of Seville

Professor Samentha Goethals, Skema Business School

Professor Michael Assländer, University of Dresden

Professor Björn Fasterling, EDHEC Business School

This special track invites scholarly and professional contributions on how businesses can respect and advance human rights amid crises and mounting backlash. Companies are operating in an environment marked by populist politics, geopolitical conflicts, economic downturns, and growing resistance to international human rights norms. These contingencies result in concrete business challenges, such as the retrenchment of labor protections, weakened supply chain oversight, regulatory rollbacks that call into question long standing commitments, or the deployment of technologies that can constitute social realities in which human rights are diminished, constrained or reframed.

We welcome research and practice orientated papers examining how businesses embed human rights at both strategic and operational levels, and how ethical management can guide new beginnings for corporate conduct.

Contributions may address, for example:

• The role of business ethics in responding to backlash against human rights frameworks, or regulatory rollback
• Practical challenges in ensuring labor rights, supply chain due diligence, and community engagement under conflict or crisis conditions
• The human rights implications of digital technologies, AI and data-driven business models
• The responsibilities for business enterprises vis-a-vis the human rights implications of climate change and to ensure a just and fair energy transition
• The responsibilities of business schools and universities for teaching human rights responsibilities in turbulent times
• Innovative approaches to integrating human rights into corporate strategy, governance, or risk management in order to promote resilience and accountability

Submissions may draw from theoretical debates, empirical research, or professional practice. The track aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue and generate proposals on how businesses can sustain and develop a meaningful commitment to human rights in troubled times. We also invite perspectives from the Global South, since many of today’s most serious challenges around supply chains, resource governance, and community rights are felt most acutely there.

Submissions may be sent via conference’s regular submission procedure. Please indicate that you wish to participate in the Special Track.

Contact: bjorn.fasterling@edhec.edu

References:

Arnold, D. G. (2010): Transnational Corporations and the Duty to Respect Basic Human Rights, Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(3), 371-399.

Bright, C. and Buhmann, K (2021): Risk-based due diligence, climate change, human rights and the just transition. Sustainability 13(18), https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810454

Brühl, R. (2025): Should They Go, or May They Stay: Companies in Aggressor States, Journal of Business Ethics, 197(2), 271–288. 

Buhmann, K., Fonseca, A., Andrews, N., & Amatulli, G. (2024): Meaningful stakeholder engagement: the concept, practice and governance. In K. Buhmann, A. Fonseca, N. Andrews, & G. Amatulli (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook on Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement (pp. 3-39). Routledge.

Cambou, D. & Buhmann, K. (2025): Indigenous Peoples, Business, and the Struggles for Justice in the Green Transition: Towards a Rights-Based Approach to Just Transitions. Business and Human Rights Journal

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Fasterling, B., and Demuijnck, G. (2013): Human Rights in the Void? Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Journal of Business Ethics, 116(4), 799-814.

Fasterling, B. (2017): Human Rights Due Diligence as Risk Management: Social Risk Versus Human Rights Risk, Business and Human Rights Journal, 2, 225–47 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2016.26>

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McVey, M., & Savaresi, A. (Accepted/In press): Corporate accountability for climate change: What role for business and human rights? In L. McConnell, R. Pereira, & A. Savaresi (Eds.), Business, human rights and natural resource governance: accountability for a just transition Hart Publishing.

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Olsen, T., Rehbein, K., Snelson-Powell, A., & Westermann-Behaylo, M. (2021): Human Rights in the Oil and Gas Industry: When Are Policies and Practices Enough to Prevent Abuse? Business & Society, 61(6), 1512-1557.

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