23 August 2020

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The COVID-19 pandemic has generated fears that business-related human rights abuses in the region will only get worse. […]

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[…] While proponents of the UNGPs express hope that the UNGPs will stimulate change through processes of learning and socialisation, these contributions show that there are significant political obstacles to change.

Foremost among these is the political dominance in many Southeast Asian countries of predatory authoritarian and oligarchic elites whose wealth and power depend on ownership or control over the business activities that generate human rights concerns. […]

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A second political obstacle to change is the growing role of China as a donor and investor within the region. […]

A third, and final, political obstacle to change has been the compartmentalisation of policy-making and implementation—that is, its organisation into discrete spheres defined by sector. […]

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It is clear that full implementation of the UNGPs in Southeast Asia is not currently politically feasible. Nor is it likely to be so in the foreseeable future. But these limited forms of progress indicate that the business and human rights agenda has gained some traction in the region, offering some level of hope for the future. Undoubtedly continued activism by rights-based coalitions will be central to turning this modest progress into deeper and more sustained change in the future. In taking this research agenda forward, it will therefore be important to explore why these modest successes have been possible given the inauspicious nature of the wider political context, and whether and how these initial achievements could be leveraged to propel deeper change.