This paper intends to provide insights as to whether institutional investors, through the framework proposed by the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, can promote business respect for human rights worldwide. In this regard, the paper explains why investors are not currently paying attention to human rights and offers some practical proposals on how this situation can be addressed...It identifies the central obstacle to them playing this role as the lack of consensus and clarity around the human rights expectations of companies and, specifically, the absence of an agreed normative framework...It argues that the framework proposed by the Special Representative does not effectively address this shortcoming...Finally, it considers the implications of the authors' proposals in the context of the recommendations that have been made by the Special Representative. [refers to Enron, Barclays, Novartis, Novo Nordisk (part of Novo Group)]