Some Reflections on a Thorny Issue: The Social Responsibility of Companies

• Autor: Servais, Jean Michel
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2010
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:revistaspuc:article/2950
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/derechopucp/article/view/2950
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Codes of conduct; Social license; International Labour Organization; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Global Compact; Códigos de conducta; licencia social; Organización Internacional del Trabajo; Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos; Pacto Mundial

At present, social responsibility presents a problem and this refers to whether the social responsibility is only limited to social issues. Based on that scenario, the author emphasizes highlighting a broader vision that includes issues of human rights, the environment and relationships with local communities. Likewise, there is another parallel conflict between private business actors and the protective actions of public authorities. In other words, there is a regulatory vacuum of strategic and technical limitations that do not make it possible to assemble national and international public policies and programs. In this way, the author outlines the difficulty of implementing national and international norms and, consequently, the difficulty of enforcing compliance with private entities. However, there is a recent and growing complementarity between ILO standards and social initiatives of national and transnational companies. This assembly is presented in front of the following challenges in which each State ratifies or not some international agreement. In addition, the ILO does not have sanctions against those who violate national rights. For this reason, emphasis is placed on highlighting the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and throughout the text, examples will be developed in which several Member States will take that statement as a reference with the objective of drafting their own codes of conduct. In summary, the author declares the need to continue in the complementarity of the national norms with the social responsibility norms of the company. Likewise, the influence of the International Labor Organization in which the author points out has potential is highlighted.