Business & Human Rights: A geography of corporate risk

Amnesty International and IBLF have collaborated to produce a series of seven detailed world maps, which depict where human rights abuses and violations exist and where leading North American and European multinational companies are at risk of being associated with them.

The suite of maps covers the extractive, food and beverages, pharmaceutical and chemical, infrastructure and utilities, heavy manufacturing and defence, and IT Hardware and telecommunications sectors.

The context
The purpose of this series of maps is to illustrate where companies are most vulnerable to the cost and reputational damage associated with human rights violations.

The extent to which a particular company is exposed to risk depends on where the company operates and the types of activity in which it engages. Many transnational corporations operate in countries with repressive administrations where the rule of law is weak, where the independence of the judiciary is questionable, and where arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and extra-judicial executions occur. The government may ban free trade union activity and deny its citizens freedom of association. Factory workers in plants from which companies source their products may be subject to inhuman and degrading working conditions.

Companies may be operating in areas of conflict or may be seen by certain ethnic groups to be violating ancestral lands or traditional knowledge. The government, to whom a company is paying taxes and resource rents, may be skewing state expenditure in favour of the military and national security, and away from health and education, or in favour of one ethnic group to the detriment of others. Companies may also find themselves in environments where bribery and corruption permeate society and where they are seen to condone fraudulent distributions of wealth.

Each of these situations creates risks which, if mishandled, may lead to litigation, extortion, lost production, sabotage, higher security costs and increased insurance premiums. Other consequences may include restricted access to capital, difficulty in recruiting or retaining the best staff, and above all, reputational damage.

The main conclusion to be drawn from this mapping is that, in the absence of transparent and properly enforced human rights policies, significant costs and damage to corporate reputation may be incurred.

"The United Nations does not ask or expect business to assume the responsibilities of government.
It does ask business to act in a responsible way in their sphere of activities"

Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, BP Annual Lecture, The British Museum, November 2001

The sectoral maps
Amnesty and IBLF have produced a suite of seven maps covering the extractive, food and beverages, pharmaceutical and chemical, infrastructure and utilities, heavy manufacturing and defence, and IT Hardware and telecommunications sectors:

The links below provide a map showing information on each sector, and a downloadable file showing the map and explanatory text. The first set is a composite of all the maps, illustrating where human rights abuses and violations exist and where leading North American and European multinational companies are at risk of being associated with them.