I. The Beginnings
The Business and Human Rights Journal (BHRJ) was launched at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in November 2015. The business and human rights (BHR) community – including scholars, practitioners and civil society actors – welcomed this first dedicated peer-review journal with a global outreach and ambition with open arms and a packed room at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The foundation of the journal was a logical and expected step in a highly dynamic, fast evolving field that was in the process of institutionalization. Like other scholarly fields, the BHR field was in dire need of a specific publication platform to facilitate rigorous conversations among scholars and practitioners. It was a much-needed initiative not only from an institutionalization perspective, but also in regard to the breadth and plurality of the evolving discussion. Five years into the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the field was converging rapidly toward this new ‘focal point’ and the concept of human rights due diligence. There was a risk of scholarship focusing narrowly to the confines of the framework underlying the UNGPs, rather than keeping a broad and critical perspective on BHR. Therefore, establishing a forum for critical assessments and broader BHR related discussions was of key importance.
Ten years later, the BHR discussion has evolved into a full-fledged scholarly field with BHRJ being its authoritative scholarly publication. The role of BHRJ for the evolving field has not been to merely provide a platform for publication but to actively facilitate, moderate and shape the discussion. In particular, BHRJ strives to keep the discussion broad and open by focusing on four overarching objectives: interdisciplinary conversations; inclusion of marginalized voices and issues; plurality of methodologies; and bridging practice and theory.
II. Interdisciplinary Conversations
Although BHR as a field is rooted in various disciplines, its emergence was characterized by a strong emphasis and a decisive initial push from legal scholarship. The predominance of legal perspectives in shaping the field remains to this day. Nevertheless, making actual progress on the ground in advancing human rights in and through business hinges not only on lawyers and legal instruments, but decisively on how business practitioners make sense of and internalize human rights and planetary health in the core business policies, processes and activities.
More pronounced interdisciplinary approaches would also enable the BHR field to break free from the constraints of approaching all issues from the perspective of the UNGPs or related legal standards, as well as exploring other issues such political economy of regulation, the economics of corporate human rights abuses and the societal cost of the failure of companies to respect human rights and the environment. As the BHR field moves beyond labour rights and human rights and confronts the triple planetary crisis of environmental pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss or responds to the impacts of disruptive technologies, war economies and geo-political divides, interdisciplinary approaches have become more necessary than ever.
To expand the discussion to include management studies and other non-law disciplines has been a key objective for BHRJ. While some progress has been achieved in this regard, there is still a bias toward legal contributions, which is reflected also in the journal’s submission numbers. The trend toward mandatory human rights due diligence legislation has embedded that bias further. Furthermore, while the community of non-law BHR scholars has been growing, it seems that BHR runs a risk of falling in the trap that we know from other fields: that different sub-communities develop in silos, rather than fostering conversations across various disciplinary aisles. Deliberate and strong efforts will be necessary to keep BHR conversations interdisciplinary.
At the same time, going forward, the notion of BHR as a distinct ‘field’ may be too limiting. There is hardly any issue which has no interface with businesses, human rights or both. Therefore, BHR should perhaps also be seen as a ‘lens’ to analyze or interrogate any issue. There are precedents where a domain may operate both as a field and a lens. Gender or feminism is a case in point – the intersection of gender, business and human rights was explored in a dedicated special issue of the journal published in 2022.
III. Inclusion of Marginalized Voices and Issues
Much of the BHR discussion to date has dealt with large multinational corporations and their supply chains, the negative impacts of which on human rights or the environment often occur in the Global South. Despite this focus of the BHR field, its scholarship is characterized by the same deficiency as international scholarly discussions more generally: the relative absence of voices from the Global South.
Inclusivity and diversity of the discussion has been at the very core of BHRJ’s mission from the very start. At the same time, balancing this core mission with the demands of a global academic publishing system that is similarly geared toward Western standards has proven to be a formidable challenge. A number of regional special issues – on Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific – have provided entry points for BHRJ to engage more closely with the respective communities of authors. In addition, BHRJ has road-tested more collaborative mentoring formats to improve access to publishing for Global South authors. The fact that BHRJ is now fully open access allows a broader global audience to have access to the journal content, without the barrier of a pay wall. This is a positive development that removes one key barrier. But other challenges remain, including the journal publishing solely in one language, English.
Absence of voices from the Global South is not ‘merely’ a problem from the perspective of representation and inclusivity. It has also meant that certain issues have not gained much attention among BHR scholars, such as informal economies, the human rights responsibility of small and medium-sized enterprises, export of hazardous substances to developing countries, tax avoidance and evasion, the impact of business corruption on human rights and the roles and responsibility of business in realizing human rights and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, inclusion of the Global South voices and issues will be critical for the future success of BHR as a movement and a field. The intersection of BHR with Indigenous rights is another area where inclusion of the Global South perspectives is sorely needed.
IV. Plurality of Methodologies
Particularly in the early years, BHR research was largely conceptual and theoretical, aimed at defining and delineating the field, outlining the responsibilities of business, and analyzing the potentials and limitations of various regulatory initiatives directed to ensure business respect for human rights. Empirical scholarship, in particular, was and has been much rarer. However, as the field evolves and various regulatory instruments and policies are implemented, gaining data on their uptake and impact has become of key importance, not only for scholarship, but also for policymaking.
While, accordingly, there has been an increase in empirical research in recent years, both in BHRJ and beyond, it is still piecemeal, scattered and incomplete. There is a need for more rigorous empirical investigations and socio-legal studies. This should allow policymakers and other stakeholders to take a more evidence-based stand about BHR standards and regulations and develop more effective practices to ensure business respect for human rights.
The BHR field would also benefit from greater decolonial, postcolonial and neocolonial examination of BHR issues including models of regulation. So far scholars have mostly accepted, without critical scrutiny, the Western production of norms and framing of the agenda.
V. Bridging Theory and Practice
From the very start, a unique characteristic of the BHR field has been the strong fusion of scholarship and advocacy, with scholars actively pursuing active roles in driving the movement or being involved in policy making in addition to their academic work. Accordingly, the trajectory of the scholarly discussion has been heavily influenced by developments on the ground while, vice versa, scholarship has had a more direct potential to shape and influence the movement on the ground than we are perhaps used to from other fields. The bridges between scholars and practitioners have ensured that civil society organizations and grass roots advocates were able to bring to light issues that were not on the radar of BHR scholars.
BHRJ has paid tribute to this feature of the field and actively supported this interconnection by adding a dedicated ‘Developments in the Field’ section to the more traditional scholarly papers. DiF contributors have included stakeholders from civil society, business, government and from persons with lived experience, representing workers and communities impacted by corporate activity. The strong interlinkage between the two perspectives and a sign that the conversation between scholarship and ‘practice’ has indeed been facilitated by the section is illustrated by the fact that some DiF pieces rank among the top-cited contributions to BHRJ over the years.
VI. BHR During the Next 10 Years and Beyond: Emerging Voices
After having outlined the beginnings of BHRJ and the challenges and ambitions during the first ten years, this special issue now gives the stage to emerging voices in the BHR field, that is, those voices that will shape the future of BHR. The special issue brings together ten original articles by selected emerging BHR scholars. These articles address a broad range of topics and issues from a variety of perspectives. The collection of articles is a testimony to the diversity and versatility of the BHR field. All the articles take a forward-looking perspective, pointing to promising discussions and untapped potentials that could chart new ways into the future of BHR.
As BHRJ enters its second decade, the world is in a state of tremendous flux with increase in armed conflict, planetary challenges, rising inequality, trade wars and geopolitical fissures. During these turbulent times, the need for business respect for human rights is more than ever, while the pressure coming to roll back advancements is also evident. BHRJ will provide a much-needed forum for continued dialogue amidst this backdrop.
With this special issue, our tenure as founding Editors-in-Chief is coming to a close. It has been a pleasure and an honor to facilitate the evolution of BHR scholarship during the past ten years. We could not have done this without the support of countless number of people – authors, reviewers, editors, readers, copyeditors and typesetters. Rebecca O’Rourke from Cambridge University Press has been a close partner and supporter in this journey from the very beginning. We thank each one of you for your respective contributions to the journal’s success!
As we pass the baton to the incoming Editors-in-Chief, we feel confident that the BHRJ – and BHR as a field – will continue to grow under their leadership and with contributions from emerging voices such as those featured in this 10th anniversary special issue.
